The Space Between
by Xrai
Summary: AU. Escaping from the Game Station, Captain Jack Harkness finds himself in the 29th century. Conscripted by Torchwood, when a Rift in time and space reopens, he finds himself sent to the abandoned space station Torchwood Three, with his own ragtag team.
1. Chapter 1

**Title:** The Space Between 1/?  
**Rating: **PG. Rating may go up to NC-17 in later chapters.  
**Character(s)/Pairing(s):** Jack, Ianto, Tosh, Owen, Gwen, mentions of other canon characters  
**Summary:** Torchwood! In Space! Escaping from the Game Station, Captain Jack Harkness finds himself in the 29th century. Conscripted by Torchwood, when a Rift in time and space reopens, he finds himself sent to the abandoned space station Torchwood Three, with his own ragtag team. Alternate Universe. Written for the longliveianto Halloween Challenge at LJ. See further A/N at chapter end.  
**Warnings:** Swearing  
**Disclaimer: **If I owned Torchwood, the boys would have had more screentime together, more sex, and Ianto would still be alive. Unbeta-ed, feel free to point out any mistakes.

* * *

**Chapter One**

Captain Jack Harkness swept his arm out to the vista beyond him. "Ladies and gentleman," he declared, "welcome to Torchwood Three."

Owen Harper snorted. "That pile of junk? We're going to work there?"

Jack turned around to retake in the sight of that space station that was coming up before them. Granted, the Hub was old, but that didn't mean she was junk. She didn't look like junk at any rate, not with those clean, sleek lines and the sturdy looking hull with none of the pitting and marring from space debris that so many other space-faring craft had. Okay, so maybe the docking bay and hanger looked a little... mangled, but for a two hundred year old craft, she looked amazing.

Meanwhile, Owen rattled on with his cheery list of 'what ifs'. "What if the hull breaks? What if we loose power? Does this wreck even have artificial gravity? Because I can't take care of people when we're floating about like a bunch of-"

"Owen, shut up, or I'll dump you out of an airlock." Toshiko Sato had removed her navigation goggles and was now glaring angrily in the doctor's direction. "I'd like to fly this ship in peace, please."

"I think its beautiful, Jack," Gwen Cooper said as she stepped up to join him by the window. She smiled at him, and he returned that smile, but behind the false cheery grin he was reconsidering his decision to invite Gwen to join his team. This was her first time off planet, and while she had proven herself plenty planetside, he wasn't sure if she would cope well being in space and away from family, friends and her boyfriends.

Ah well. If it didn't work out, he could always Retcon her and send her back.

Toshiko's voice cut through his thoughts, cool and collected even though he'd heard her bickering in the background with Owen for the last ten minutes. He admired her patience and more so her ability to concentrate on flying the ship while managing to come up with stinging retorts to Owen's whining. But that was his brilliant Toshiko, and why he'd hired her in the first place. "We'll be docking in ten minutes. I know it looks cool when you stand by the viewport looking all grand and imposing, Captain, but I suggest you strap yourself down. The docking clamps look old, this isn't going to be a smooth ride."

"Yes, ma'am." He snapped her a salute and a wink, then slid into the co-pilot's chair as Gwen and Owen took the seats behind them.

The ship slid slowly through the silence of space, drifting closer and closer to the dented and burnt hatches of the docking bay. At the navigation console, Toshiko flipped a switch to engage the docking clamps. There was a short judder as the clamps attached them selves to the space station, followed by a heavier shudder that had Gwen gasp in surprise.

Jack twisted in his seat to give her a reassuring wink, then at Toshiko's nod, extended the hatch. It took five minutes for the vacuum to be replaced with oxygen, and once the green light on the console blinked to indicate that it was safe to board, Jack got out of his seat and rushed out of the cockpit.

Gwen grinned as she watched the tail of her employer's coat whip out of sight. "He's like a big kid."

Toshiko was running a systems check, and powering down the engine. "Jack's like that. He's very..." It took her a moment to find the right word to describe her boss. "Enthusiastic."

Behind her, Owen undid his crash harness and grumbled, "I still don't see why you didn't let me fly the ship. I'm the pilot! It's my job."

"This is my ship, Owen, no one is flying my ship, not even Jack," Toshiko retorted even as Gwen asked, "I though you were the doctor?"

"Doctor," the narrow-faced man corrected her with a sneer. "I'm the doctor. And the pilot," he added.

"Oi, kids!" came Jack's bellow from the cargo hold. "Are you coming to get your stuff, or should I simply jettison everything?"

**888888**

"Are you really sure four of us can handle this place, Jack?" Toshiko asked as they walked through the long, silent corridor that, according to the floor plans on her PDA, should lead to the, bridge.

"Yep," was Jack's confident answer. "I hired the best."

An arched eyebrow was he received in reply before they came face to face with a pair of heavy blast doors. A minutes stretched out while they stood expectantly before the heavily reinforced portal, before Toshiko asked, askance, "The code, Jack. I hope you have it."

"Oh, right." Jack blinked, then giving her a sheepish grin, turned to the biosensor embedded in the wall and used his wriststrap to override and enter the access code he had been given to by Torchwood One. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Toshiko eyeing his Vortex Manipulator with unconcealed interest. The first time he'd met her, she had asked to have a look at it, but Jack had refused. Toshiko was an amazingly brilliant woman, and he trusted her with his life, but he never let anybody touch his manipulator.

A light on the door winked blue, then with a shudder and groan, the magnetic locks disengaged and the huge doors slowly slid open.

The bridge was circular covered by a large dome of metal. As they walked in, lights sprang into life, illuminating console banks that ran around the entire room. In the middle was a semicircular console, with a large black chair before it. Jack grinned. That was the captain's chair. In other words, his.

"Get the systems online, Tosh. I want you run a systems check. Make sure everything is working; artificial gravity, the atmospheric system, navigation, security, plu-"

"Jack," Tosh interrupted, with the long suffering tone of someone who knew exactly what to do and didn't need telling, "I can handle it."

"Right," said Jack, grinning, as he fell back into his chair. "Amaze me, Tosh. But before you do that, tell Owen and Gwen to come up here, they should be done unloading by now."

Ten minutes later, the other two members of his team walked in, then dropped their jaws in astonishment. Tosh had opened the bridge's protective hull, revealing a transparent dome that stretched above them. The sight was amazing, presenting them with a view of the stars, a bit of the Earth, and above them, the dark maw of the Rift.

"Whoa," whispered Gwen, giving voice to the same awe that Jack had felt as he'd watched the hull retract. He'd traveled through space for centuries, but he could never tire of marveling at its beauty.

He let them gape a bit more, then clapped his hands once to get their attention. "Okay, team, enough ogling. Owen, Gwen, I want you conduct a thorough reconnaissance of this place. Check every room, every compartment, I want to know what places we can use, and which places need repair. Wear atmosuits, we can't be sure that every room is secure and safe. Floor plans are on your PDAs."

"Right. So what are you going to do?" Despite the disinterested tone of his voice, Owen looked eager at the prospect of exploring the space station.

"I'm going down to the engine room, then check on the reactor."

"Protective gear, Harkness. A bloody lot of use you'll be to us if you get vapourised."

"Your concern in touching, Owen. Now get going. I'm sure we'd all like to sleep in beds tonight."

"I'm taking-"

"Cabins have already been assigned. It's all on you PDA, if you'd read it, you would've known."

"Knew you'd keep the largest cabin for yourself, Harkness."

"Not the largest, Owen. Just the one with the best sound-proofing."

**88888**

Despite his inability to die, Jack complied to Owen's order and put on a radiation suit before entering the reactor room. The moment he stepped through the heavy shield doors he could the heat radiating from the core despite the protective gear he had on. With configured his wriststrap to scan for any leaks, then slowly circled the entire room. Nothing seemed wrong or broken and his manipulator didn't detect any leaks or faults either. He found himself letting out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. The possibility for damage had been very high, especially since the reactor had been restarted after being dormant for over a hundred years. There' could easily have a been a leak or even a meltdown.

He opened his line to the bridge. "All good here, Tosh. I'll be coming up in second to give you a full report."

_Very well, Captain._

"Captain?"

_Sorry, Jack. Got carried away, being up here on a space station and all._

"Pity. Up for a little role-play later?"

_Unless you want Tommy to kill you._

"Aw, come on, he can't begrudge you a little fun. He can join us if he wants, when he comes to visit you. Or when we make a visit planetside."  
_  
Still don't think that's a good idea, Jack. Maybe you should ask Owen. He might be interested.  
_  
"You're breaking my heart here, Tosh."

_And you're a drama queen-_

_Oi, Harkness stop harassing the tech. We need you here right now._

"What is it, Owen." Jack slipped out of the suit and hurried into the decontamination room.  
_  
There's a room here that we can't get into. No idea what's inside, so we thought we'd ask you.  
_  
Jack hurried through the decontamination shower. One should be enough, and it wasn't like any excess radiation would kill him.

"Tosh."

_Yes, Jack?_

"I want you find out what the room may be; go through all the information given by One and search the database if you can."  
_  
Copy that. Searching now._

"Good. Owen?"

_What?_

"I'm on the way. Don't do anything."

**88888**

Owen and Gwen were standing in front of a pair of heavy looking shield doors, Owen looking bored and Gwen nervous. She brightened visibly when he appeared, while Owen continued to be absorbed in whatever happened to be playing on his PDA. Porn, mostly likely.

"So, what do we have here?"

"No idea," said Owen, clicking of his PDA, the same Gwen blurted, "It's not labeled on the plan."

"Right. Tosh?"

_There's not much about it here, but there's a record about Torchwood Three having an archive. Since there's nothing about an Archive any where else on the plans, this should be it._

"So is it safe open?"

_It should be. I can't find any defense systems online._

"Unless you're worried about being crushed by a ton of datawafers or something," Owen muttered sarcastically.

"Why does Torchwood Three need an archive anyway?" Gwen asked, moving closer to Jack so she could peer at the biometric keypad embedded in the door which he was currently inspecting.

"Well, they guarded the Rift before it closed. Must contain information about it or something."

"But why the security?"

"Let's find out." He keyed in his service number. He wasn't quite sure if it would work, but since the station's systems had been keyed to his number and scans, it aught to. Unless there was a different code One hadn't told him about… did One actually know this Archive existed? He couldn't recall anyone mentioning it, and he hadn't seen in the briefing notes, which, contrary to popular belief, he did read.

Nothing happened.

"Tosh, can you-"

The console glowed blue, then bleeped once.

**Identified. Harkness, Jack. Captain. Biometric scans required.**

"Never mind, Tosh. Just stay on standby. Prepare to put the station on lockdown, just in case."

"Will that be necessary?" asked Gwen, worry colouring her voice.

"Better safe than sorry." He took his gun from his holster, then placed his hand on the biometric scanner. It took several minutes for it to read his fingerprints, DNA and lifesigns, then the holomessage changed.

**Access granted.**

Jack turned to his team and shot them a grin. "See, it's all right."

"Yeah?" said Owen. "There's more."

**Only the Archivist can access Torchwood Three Archive files. Archiving Unit currently in stasis.**

"What or who the fuck is the Archivist?" asked Owen.

**Awaken Archivist?**  
**Yes No**

To be continued...

* * *

A/N: I will update this story primarily at my LiveJournal (link on my profile page). If you'd like to read weekly updates (every Thursday), I suggest you look over there (it is not friends locked and anonymous comments are permitted). Thank you for reading.


	2. Chapter 2

**Title:** The Space Between 2/?  
**Rating: **PG-13. Rating may go up to NC-17 in later chapters.  
**Character(s)/Pairing(s):** Jack, Ianto, Tosh, Owen, Gwen, mentions of other canon characters; various permutations of pairings  
**Summary:** Torchwood! In Space! Escaping from the Game Station, Captain Jack Harkness finds himself in the 29th century. Conscripted by Torchwood, when a Rift in time and space reopens, he finds himself sent to the abandoned space station Torchwood Three, with his own ragtag team. Alternate Universe. Written for the longliveianto Halloween Challenge.  
**Warnings:** Swearing, nakedness  
**Disclaimer: **If I owned Torchwood, the boys would have had more screentime together, more sex, and Ianto would still be alive. Unbeta-ed, feel free to point out any mistakes.

* * *

**Chapter 2**

"Jack, what do we do?" asked Gwen, hovering over his shoulder. "Jack-"

Owen was swearing under his breath. "Fucking One, never telling us anything. Just ordering us to get our butts here-"

"Enough!" Jack thundered. "Tosh, I hope you're watching the CCTV for this. I need you find out everything you can about the Torchwood Three Archivist."

_I'm on it._

"Thanks. And you two," he turned to the other two members of his team, "shut up."

"Don't tell me to shut it, Harkness."

"I don't have time for this, Owen."

He turned and studied the message again, still shimmering in front of the door.

**Awaken Archivist?**  
**Yes No**

Jack ran a hand through his hair in frustration. Bloody Torchwood One. When he got planetside he was going to wring Yvonne Hartman's neck. Why hadn't she informed him of this? Though a thought continued to niggle at the back of his mind; maybe Torchwood One didn't know about the existence of this Archive. Torchwood Three had been known to be a rogue organization before it shut down. Maybe this was its carefully guarded secret? Still he found it hard to believe that no one from Torchwood One had come up here to check the place or to retrieve information. Or had the entire placed been abandoned by the entire organisation? There had to have been clean up crew here at the very least to remove the mess left by the last director's massacre.

_Jack, there's nothing._

Jack started out of his thoughts. "Sorry?"

_There's nothing, Jack. Should I send a message to One?_

"No. Just be ready for lockdown, just in case. I'm going to awaken the Archivist or whatever it is."

_Okay. _He could hear her worry clearly._ Be careful._

He turned to Gwen and Owen. "Ready?"

Both had their guns drawn with the safeties of any pointed toward the direction of the door. "Yes, Jack," added Gwen, while Owen powered up his gun dramatically.

**Awaken Archivist?**  
**Yes No**

**YES**

There was a loud clank, then doors opened slowly with a rumble. Guns held before them, they stepped into a small antechamber illuminated by soft blue lights.

"Well, that's anti climatic," said Owen, looking around the room. "There's nothing h-"

"Jack!" Both of the men swung and turned in the direction she was pointing. One of the walls of the antechamber had slid aside, revealing a glass wall covered in what looked like frost. Owen approached it slowly, tapping it once with the butt of his gun, before swiping a hand over.

"Bloody hell, Jack, look at this."

The captain holstered his gun and hurried over looking over Owen's shoulder at the clear patch of glass. Gwen wasn't far behind and squeezed next to Owen, when rubbed a wider patch clear so that they could both see.

"It's a cryo-unit," the doctor murmured.

Though the glass was slowly fogging up again, they could clearly make out the features the dark-haired young man frozen inside. Naked, his skin was deathly pale and frost rimmed his eyelashes, hair and body hair. None of them could resists running their eyes over his entire body, but Jack was the one who licked his lips. Owen caught the movement and frowned. "Don't you dare think of shagging him when he comes out. God knows how long he's been in cryosleep and he may be dangerous."

Jack held up his hands defensively. "I was just looking!"

"Yeah, right. We all know what your 'looking' involves, Harkness."

"Boys! Shouldn't we be checking on him?" Gwen nodded at the cryo-unit.

"Well, if there was a way I could monitor his healths signs."

A hologram shimmered into appearance.

**CRYO-UNIT #TW3-407-670**  
**Intelligent Archiving NeuroTechological Organism**  
**Biosigns:**

"He's all yours," said Jack, and the doctor quickly ran through the biosigns while the captain contacted Tosh.

_Everything all right, Jack?_

"Yep. So far anyway. We have uncovered a cryo-unit which may or may not contain the Archivist. We're not sure what the system meant by that. Either way, could you please prep the infirmary for cryosleep recovery. And also get the bioscans ready. I'd like to know everything there is to know about our friend here.

_Okay. Again, be careful._

"We will." He closed the frequency but left the line open. "Anything new?" he asked, turning to Owen.

The doctor was frowning. "According to the data here, he's not just in stasis, he's brain dead. Yet there's no sign of the unit malfunctioning, nor does he seem to have any head trauma or show any signs of it. Other than that, lifesigns are the normal for stasis; very low heartbeat, low pulse, minimal breathing and all that. It'll take a while, the unit's going slow. Poor bugger must have been in here for a century."

"Since the station shut down," murmured Gwen, placing her hand on the glass directly over the man's heart. "Poor sod." She looked up at Jack. "Is this the Archivist? What will we do with him?"

Jack shrugged. "We'll let him recover, then run some tests on him. And if he's up to it, maybe he can answer some questions about this place."

Her eyes went wide. "You're not going to hurt him, are you?"

"As long as he doesn't prove to be dangerous and complies to our instructions."

She gazed at him with a wide eyes look that seemed to see right through him before she returned her gaze to the man in stasis. "Okay. I trust you."

Jack turned away, slightly unnerved. He'd hired her because he thought she'd bring some humanity to his jaded team, remind them what they were fighting for. Torchwood One had the habit of turning people into mindless drones, and he was glad to have gotten out of there, Owen and Tosh in tow. Still, sending him to guard a newly reopened, highly unstable and possibly dangerous Rift through time and space with a tiny team on an abandoned space station; this could have simply been a way to get rid of him. Or maybe there was another purpose to this. Still, if they'd wanted control over the Rift, they'd have chosen a mindless lackey, not the most infamous maverick in the entire Torchwood organization.

The unit's console bleeped, and Jack turned his attention back to Owen. The medic looked up briefly from the hologram. "His biosigns are steady, and brain activity has started and is slowly increasing." Peering through the glass which was loosing most of its frost, Jack could see the man's eyes rolling beneath his eyelids.

"He's entering the REM stage of sleep and may be showing signs of dreaming soon."

"I think he already is," observed Jack. Besides the rapid eye movement, the man in the cryo-unit was also sporting an erection.

Owen grinned. "Perfectly healthy human male, then. Oi," he added, this directed to Gwen, who was staring unashamedly, "You're not jumping him either."

"He's cute," she protested.

"Whatever," muttered Owen, rolling his eyes. "You can shag him once he's recovered in a few days."

Grinning Jack slung an arm over the acerbic man's shoulder. "You're just jealous our new guy here is going to get more ass than you."

"I get plenty of arse," snapped Owen, shrugging off the other man's hand. "Just because I'm the only person here you've not shagged-"

The thump of flesh hitting glass cut him off, and he hurriedly turned to check on his patient.

"Just a reflex, it seems," he reassured Jack, who was peering with concern through the glass. "He'll be awake in a moment."

**System Diagnosis**  
**1%**

**2%**

**5%**

"System diagnosis, what the fuck? What system?" Owen yelled as he tapped angrily the console.

**11%**

In the cryo-unit, the man's eyes opened. Jack stepped back in surprise. The Archivist's (he was pretty sure the man in the unit was the Archivist) eyes were glowing blue, almost as though there were lights shining from behind them. He bent nearer and even through the glass, could see tiny strings of words and numbers run through the iris. Further down, next to his sides, the pads of the man's fingers glowed a faint blue too.

"Owen, look at this." He beckoned to the other man who was swearing at the console.

Owen came over, still countering under his breath, until he caught sight of the blue glow. "Great goddess," he muttered, and like Jack, bent nearer for a closer look. Once he'd scene enough he hurried back to the console, bumping into Gwen, who'd come to see what the commotion was all about.

**27%**

"System diagnosis, system diagnosis," the doctor mumbled repeatedly as he manipulated the hard-light console. "Jack," he said finally, looking up, "he's a cyborg. I don't think he's just the Archivist, he is the Archive."

**35%**

They watched as the numbers slowly climbed. At around 80%, Jack drew his gun. "Jack," started Gwen, but he shushed her with a wave of his hand.

**89%**

"Should we stop it?" asked Owen.

"Bit too late now. Besides, according to the system, he's the only one who can access the Archive."

"Or he is it."

Jack frowned at reviving body in the unit. "I don't think so."

**98%**

"Better get ready."

**100%**

**System Diagnosis Complete

* * *

**

_To be continued..._


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

**100%**

**System Diagnosis Complete**

The three of them collectively held their breath as the diagnostic finished. A minute passed by, with nothing happening. Then the holoscreen flashed.

**Cryo-Unit opening. Please prepare cryo-recovery.**

Jack opened his line to Tosh as the door to the unit unsealed with a hiss. "Tosh, all ready?"

_Prepped and ready, Jack._

"Good. We'll be up in a bit."

Thick, white fog, partly frost, partly chemicals used to preserve the body while in stasis, billowed out. A humming noise started up and the fog was quickly sucked up by a vent at the base of the unit. As the air cleared, Jack noticed that the blue glow had disappeared.

Then the Archivist coughed.

Tense as they were, they all jumped at the sound. The cough was feeble at first, then became louder and harsher as the occupant of the unit awoke. Gwen holstered her gun and despite Jack's angry gestures slowly approached the man. She jumped back as one hand, then the other, clamped around the frame of the unit, then pulled the rest of the body out of the cryo-unit. The man stumbled over the lip of the hatch, and fell to his hands and knees, retching loudly.

Jack and Owen exchanged glances then put away their guns. The cyborg (if it was indeed a cyborg), seemed far too weak to be able to do any harm. Gwen was patting it on it's back, trying to ease the harsh coughs that kept bursting forth. As Jack crouched down, the man looked up, and he found himself staring into the bluest eyes he'd ever seen. They didn't glow as they'd previously done, but there still seemed to be some kind of light in them, almost hypnotic, pulling Jack under.

The man blinked, cutting the spell, and stumbled to his feet. Ignoring them as if they were not there, he stumbled to the hologram and placed his hands on the hard-light console. Immediately it lit up beneath his fingers, and once again, his eyes and the the tips of his fingers glowed blue, while streams of data ran through his irises.

_Jack! _Came Tosh's frantic voice through his earpiece. _There's something accessing the Mainframe and I can't stop it!_

"It's the Archivist. What is it doing?"

_Going through the databanks, accessing all personnel files, and- oh goddess, it's in the security system and…  
_  
"What is it, Tosh, what is going on?"

_It's-_

**Archive Online**

_Jack, there's a new system. The Archive system. It's running, but it's separate from the station Mainframe. I can't get in._

Behind them, a laser curtain sprung to life, spanning the entrance to the Archive.

"Shit," yelled Owen, "We're trapped i-"

_Jack!_

"You're not."

They all turned as one to the naked man at the console. "Your biometric profile has been added to the Archive security systems. You have authorization to enter, but only at my permission."

He looked at Owen. "Owen Harper," he intoned. "Doctor. Previous employment: Central Hospital, special advisor to Torchwood One."

_Jack! What do I-_

"It's okay Tosh. Leave it."

"Gwen Elisabeth Cooper. Team member, designation field agent and..." the cyborg frowned, "heart of the team? Previous employment: Cardiff police force."

His bright blue gaze then turned to Jack and seemed to pin him against the wall. "Alias Jack Harkness, real name unknown. Captain. Director of Torchwood Three. Previous employment: Torchwood One, freelance agent."

The gaze then turned away, taking in the room. Looking for Tosh, Jack guessed. "Tosh is in the infirmary. We'll be taking you there for cryo-recovery."

"Tosh. Toshiko Sato. Tech, mechanic, pilot, hacker. Previous employment: UNIT, occasionally assigned to Torchwood One. Previous convic-"

"Okay, that's enough," said Jack, stepping over and slapping his hand over the Archivist's mouth. "Let's get you checked over at the infirmary."

He'd expected the other man to shy away from the contact, but was surprised when he turned around and leaned against him instead. "Cold," the cyborg murmured.

At that moment Jack became aware that he had a very naked, very attractive man leaning very close to him and breathing in his ear. Normally he wouldn't have complained, but if looks could kill Owen's glare would have incinerated him, so he pulled away as gently as he could and shrugged his coat off, letting the cyborg slip into it. It was hard to tear his gaze away as he watched the slender, pale fingers stroke the cloth and inspect each button. Then the cyborg sniffed the collar, and licked it. Making a face as though he was tasting a new flavour, he then said, "Fifty-first century pheromones."

Jack raised an eyebrow to conceal his surprise. "How do you know?"

A small smile spread across the pale face. "I know everything." He said it as though he were repeating a private joke to himself.

"Okay," said Owen, interjecting himself in the conversation. "Infirmary, now."

The cyborg nodded. "Yes, doctor."

He took the first few steps hesitantly, then a little more confidently, but as he crossed the threshold he stumbled and fell to his knees. The slit up the back of Jack's coat fell open and the captain found himself thinking of the all the things he could do to that magnificent white arse…

"Oi, Harkness, are you just going to stand there? Make yourself useful for once."

Jack shook himself, then hurried over and helped the cyborg to his feet. The Archivist was mumbling to himself. Jack managed to catch a few words, noticing that several of them were in in different languages, but the rest of it just sounded like garbled nonsense.

"He okay?" asked Gwen, as Jack pulled a pale arm around his shoulder and placed his own around a slim, almost skinny waist. He stepped tentatively into the laser curtain, which raised a tingling sensation on his skin which disappeared once he passed through.

"'m fine. And 'm here, y'know?"

Gwen blushed. "Sorry. It's just- What do we call you? Do you have a name?"

"Intelligent Archiving NeuroTechological Organism. But you can call me Ianto."

"Ianto." Jack rolled the name in his mouth. "Yan-toe."

"It's the acronym, but it's also a Welsh name," Ianto explained. He turned to Jack. "And you're pronouncing it wrong."

"You're Welsh?" asked Gwen, surprised. "I'm Welsh."

"I know," mumbled the cyborg.

"Cooper!" yelled Owen. "Stop talking to him, you're causing unnecessary stress."

"But-"

"Doctor's orders," muttered Ianto, his face half buried in Jack's neck.

Everyone was silent the rest of the way.

**88888**

Tosh met them halfway down the corridor to the infirmary, anxiety written all over her face. "What happened?" she cried, "What did you-"

She caught sight of the cyborg leaning against Jack. "Is that him?"

Ianto looked up. "Tosh. Toshiko Sato. It's a very pretty name. I'm an Intelligent Archiving NeuroTechological Organism. Not so pretty. But you can call me Ianto."

Jack shrugged at her questioning look. "Lets get him checked up first, before we ask any further questions."

He tried to get the cyborg to take off the coat and lie down on the examination table but he just clutched the coat tighter and shook his head. "Cold," he whined, "I'm cold."

"For goddess sake," snarled Owen, and after digging around in a cupboard, found a pair of surgical scrubs. He broke the seal of the wrapper and handed the garments to the cyborg, who put them on quickly, but insisted on keeping Jack's coat.

Holding the blue-grey wool around him like a blanket, the Archivist slowly lowered himself onto the table. Meanwhile, Owen snapped on his gloves, and programmed the scanners. Once Ianto was settled, he took out a syringe. "Okay, I'm going to draw some blood. You will only feel a little prick."

The cyborg giggled, then watched as the doctor pierced the needle into the crook of his arm and drew out a syringeful of blood. As the doctor moved away to transfer the blood to a vial, Ianto looked around at the others. "Why are you all here?" he asked, looking somewhat self conscious.

Jack rested a comforting hand on his shoulder, but his grip was firm enough to stop the other man from getting up. "We're just making sure you wouldn't try anything funny."

"Like what?" Ianto mumbled. "Crack a joke?"

"Okay," said Owen, turning back with the Bekaran scanner in his hand. "Let's take a look at you."

He ran the scanner several times over the cyborg's body, each time going a layer deeper. Each layer was projected into a 3D hologram over Owen's workstation, and as the third layer winked to life, the entire Torchwood team gasped.

"Your brain…" murmured Tosh, reaching out to maximize the glowing projection so that they could all see it a little clearer.

In the projection they could clearly see the network of capillary-like circuits that covered the entire cerebral cortex. Fine wires extended further into the brain to the hippocampus were a silvery patch about as a big as a thumbnail winked at them.

"That's a CPU," said Ianto rather matter-of-factly, and they all turned as one to face him. He shrugged. "They mostly modified the memory and learning centers with some tweaking to other areas to give me a faster reflexes, but that's about it.

"I don't think so," said Owen. He tapped the second projection. "This here says you have increased muscle and bone density as well as modifications to your internal organs to cope with the augmentations."

Ianto simply shrugged again. "Yeah, but those are simply basic modifications. My primary function was to learn and remember, so my brain is more highly modified than any other area."

Owen manipulated the scans, blowing up the image of Ianto's brain to inspect it in great detail. "Fascinating," he murmured as he studied the CPU grafted to the brain. "But they are just additions, not replacements, there are no-"

"I'm not a cyborg," said Ianto loudly, sounding offended. "I'm an Artificial Intelligence."

"Whatever," muttered the doctor, "it's all the same."

"No, it's not!" the other man protested, and made to stand up, only to be pulled back down by Jack's firm hand on his shoulder. "Let go of me," he snapped at the captain, "I'm not going to kill him, I'm going to enlighten him."

Jack exchanged looks with Owen, who shrugged. With a sigh, he let go of the young man but kept his hand near his sidearm, just in case.

Ianto shuffled up to Owen, and tapped around on the computer until a file came up. "See?" He pointed at the diagram accompanying the file. "I've simply been, well, upgraded, in a sense. Cyborgs have organs or body parts replaced, or in some cases are entirely artificial creations with human internal organs. We have a specimen frozen in the Archives if you'd like to see," he added in afterthought.

"Not today," said Owen, though he did make a mental to note to check it out some day. "Sit back down, I'm going to give you a rehydration drip and then we have more tests to go through."

"Oh joy," muttered the AI, rolling his eyes.

Tosh, who had up to now had stood with Gwen against the wall watching the proceedings with interest, went up to Jack and waved her PDA at him. "Hey, Jack, I'm going to go do my job, okay? Shall I take her out of orbit?"

Jack nodded. "Do that please. Gwen, go with her and help out."

Gwen, after a moment of obvious hesitation, followed Tosh out.

"Ow," yelped Ianto as Owen stabbed the needle of the drip rather ungently into his arm.

"Whoops," said Owen unsympathetically. "Did I distract your ogling?"

"I was just looking! And so were you and the captain!"

"They're both taken, by the way," continued Owen smoothly as though Ianto had not spoken.

"So? I wasn't jumping them. What is this, the twenty-first century? And what did she mean, take what out of orbit?" The last question was directed at Jack.

"The station. We're currently in orbit around Earth's moon. And don't mind Owen, he's just grouchy because he hasn't gotten laid all day."

"Orbit? Why are we in orbit?" asked Ianto the same time as Owen growled, "Shut up, Harkness."

Jack grabbed a chair from the workstation and pulled it to the examination table, straddling it so that he was facing the AI, who was currently submitting to having his temperature taken. "We are in orbit around the moon. This station has been here for about a hundred years since the Rift closed and Torchwood Three was shut down. However, the Rift reopened for some reason a few months back so we've been sent to monitor it. Tosh will be taking us out of orbit back to Rift's coordinates. We should be there in several hours."

Ianto blinked, then shook his head as though chasing away an insect. "What? A hundred years?"

* * *

_To be continued..._**  
**


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

"Yes, a hundred years," confirmed Jack. "Can you remember when you were frozen?"

Ianto drew his knees up to his chest and leant his forehead against them, rocking slowly. After several minutes, he looked up, straight into Jack's eyes. Again, the captain was struck by how blue they were and he quickly looked away, lest he get distracted.

"I remember," said Ianto slowly. "But if you don't mind, I'd like to know what happened to my team. And a brief outline of what happened the last hundred years would be nice. Then I'll tell you everything I know."

"Okay," Jack said. "All I know is that in the year 2888, the rift in time and space that existed near the fringes of the main asteroid belt suddenly sealed after having been around for over a millennia. Nobody knows why. So after several tests on the area and waiting for a whole year to see if anything happens, nothing does, by the way, Torchwood Three finds that they are no longer needed and the team is recalled to Earth. Two days before they are supposed return, the director goes mad and slaughters the entire team before killing himself."

"Do they know why?"

Jack was surprised at the AI's calm tone. So far he'd proven pretty emotional, quite unlike the cold, unfeeling cyborg he'd expected, but now he was not showing any reaction to the news of deaths of people he had probably worked with.

"He left a garbled message saying that he'd seen the future. He claimed he was saving them from it. Apparently whatever he saw was so bad he didn't want them to suffer through it."

Ianto laughed, a dry humorless chuckle. "So? Was it so bad?"

Jack exchanged looks with Owen, who shrugged. "The Earth Republic has expanded to Epsilon Eridani and Tau Ceti; we have established several colonies there and terraforming further planets. The Foamasi attempted contact, sending ambassadors seeking to form trade agreements, but Torchwood drove them off."

"I see," said Ianto slowly as though taking the time to consider his next few words carefully. "What is your mission?"

Jack eyed the AI warily. Could he be trusted? The Torchwood he had worked under had been a different one and he could prove a hinderance, or possibly even a saboteur to the current Torchwood Three's goals. In the end, he decided to give Ianto the official mission statement. "We're tasked to watch the Rift, collect whatever debris comes through, and we are also a guard outpost and first line of defense should an alien attack come through the Rift. Also, any aliens coming through the Rift are to be apprehended and sent to the Torchwood Mercury Outpost for processing."

Once again Ianto speared him with his penetrating blue gaze, then, as though having finished some quiet assessment, turned his eyes down to his feet. Jack felt uneasy, as though he'd been weighed, measured and been found wanting. In order to be rid of the confusion the AI kept bringing up in him every time he so much as looked at him, and also because the Ianto was inspecting his bare feet, which made Jack want to look at them too -they were very nice feet- he cleared his throat loudly and asked him, "So, you did say you would explain your presence here."

Ianto picked at a toenail and didn't raise his gaze. "Yes, I did say I would do-"

"Oi," interrupted Owen, who up to now had occupied himself by running several tests on the blood sample he'd taken from the younger man. "Jack, I say he'd better get some rest before he falls over. The interrogation can wait for tomorrow."

"No, it can't," said Jack in a tone that brooked no argument. "He may have information about the Rift that may be important. Since we're heading there, I'd very much like to know what we will be facing."

Owen let loose an irritated sigh. "Fine. But can we move to a ward? Because the beds are better there and I want him settled before you start with the questions."

The AI remained silent as Owen bullied him onto a pair of scales ("Too skinny by far."), measured his height ("Another freakishly tall git." "You're just short, Owen." "Shut up, Jack.") and took his blood pressure ("A little low, but you'll live.") They got him settled in a hospital bed, made him give up Jack's coat in return for a couple of warm blankets and then Owen hooked him up to several monitors and a nutrient drip while ignoring Jack's whispered suggestions to slip the AI a truth serum while he was at it.

"So," said Jack, as he and Owen settled into chairs by the bed. He placed a recorder in Ianto's blanket covered lap. "Shoot."

The AI licked his lips, then began.

"A lot of this information I received from secondary sources and from tampered Torchwood files, so I can't guarantee its accuracy. I was born in Wales on the 19th August 2863 as part of a government sponsored Torchwood project. One hundred couples, my parents being one of them, were chosen and given incentives to have and raise a child for three years. When I was three I was… collected, from my parents and along with the other children, sent to a Torchwood laboratory outpost orbiting Venus. Had a pretty normal life for eight years, well, as normal as life can get when you're fed human imperialist and xenophobic propaganda. We learned, played, ate, slept and exercised under the watchful eyes of Torchwood and the Great Human Republic.

"When we turned eleven, we underwent several physical, mental and psychological tests, then were divided into groups according to our strengths. There were three groups, the military, the pioneers and the intellectuals. There was also a special ops psi squad," Jack had to choke down a laugh as the AI rolled his eyes and sketched quotation marks around the words with his fingers, "that no one was supposed to know about, but everyone still did. Anyway, so our education and lifestyles were specialized according to our group designations. I was an intellectual. At fifteen years old, we underwent the augmentations, those also based on our designations. As you could see, I had my thought and memory centers enhanced. Those designated military underwent muscle and bone augmentations to make them faster and stronger, the pioneers can survive in vacuum without oxygen or protection for an hour and stand extreme temperatures. As for the psychics, their augmentations were a better kept secret.

The AI sighed and rubbed a hand across his faced. He was slumped against the pillows, as though his memories physically weighed him down. "Almost half of us died. All groups had heavy casualties, but the pioneers suffered the worst. Funny really, since everyone was betting that my group would lose the most.

"Anyway, regardless of what group they were in, I lost a lot of friends that day. Of course, our low numbers now made us even more of a precious commodity. Also, Torchwood had overestimated our abilities to survive the augmentations, so naturally the government wasn't very pleased with what they saw as a waste of funds."

"How many of you were there left?" asked Owen in an uncharacteristically gentle tone.

"Fifty-seven survived, but only twenty-nine of us were fully functioning."

"Fully functioning?"

"Twenty-eight survived the augmentation but suffered from debilitating trauma . Eight went insane and were put down, another eleven died when their organs failed. The rest were set to work at administrative jobs, where their minds could still be put to work, even though their bodies were crippled. They were all dying though, slowly."

"Goddess," hissed Owen. "And the government sanctioned all this?"

Jack laughed. "Owen, haven't you learned anything, working for Torchwood? You'll be surprised to know far our Great Human Republic will go to protect our human sovereignty from alien scum."

"They're treated like commodities-"

"We're all treated like commodities." Ianto looked amused, a small but cynical smile playing about his lips. "We're all equally expendable. We, maybe you not a much as me, " his grin widened, "since you didn't cost the government five million credits, but if you were to die on duty, Torchwood or the Republic isn't going to care. You'll be replaced and it's like you've never existed."

"Fuck you," snarled Owen venomously.

"It's the truth," Ianto said serenely.

"Fuck the truth."

"Okay, okay," said Jack, intervening before the disagreement got blown out of proportion. "Ianto, please continue. Owen, sit and calm down."

"Could I have some water first, please?" asked Ianto, licking his lips. Jack gestured at Owen to get some, while trying not to watch how the pink tip of the tongue dragged slowly across the full lips. Thankfully Owen return quickly enough with several squeeze-bulbs of water. While Ianto sucked one dry, Jack stared at the wall and tried not to think of the other man sucking something else entirely.

"Tiring, Captain? We could continue later." Jack jerked as the words cut through his fantasies. He looked up to see Ianto watching him with a look of mild amusement on his face.

"Er…" He managed to keep a blush from rising and cleared his throat. "No, it's fine. Please continue." The AI winked at him and Jack made a mental note to tell Owen to conduct psychic tests on him too.

"Okay, where was I? Ah, yes, so there were only twenty-nine of us that survived, so the project was deemed a huge failure. Once we recovered from the surgeries, which took about a year or so, with lots of tests and physiotherapy, we were shipped back to Earth to a Torchwood One facility in Singapore. Torchwood had predicted a seventy-eight percent success rate of the project, but since the result fell far below that, the Republic had to halt any further project involving us due to our small numbers, so they just set us to work in that facility. I was in charge of the Archi-"

"Wait a second," interrupted Owen. "What kind of projects would the government have needed you for?"

Ianto shrugged. "Well, primarily for colonization, data collection and showing off man advancement to other species. Although had the project had a better success rate, they would have considered creating a cybernetically enhanced army. Anyway, I worked in the Archives there for several years, with nothing happening. A few of my brothers and sisters w-"

"Brothers and sisters?"

"They were like siblings to me, okay?" Ianto snapped at the doctor. "Can you stop interrupting me?"

"Okay, okay."

"So there were several of us working there, mostly intellectuals. Torchwood Singapore after all did specialize in the study of other alien cultures and we had a huge Archive."

"Ianto?" This time was Jack who interrupted.

Ianto sighed exasperatedly. "What?"

"What happened to the others?"

"I'm not too sure. I heard that the pioneers were sent to help out in the colonies and the military and psi guys were taken in by the army. Getting back to where I left off," he glared at the two other men, "I was set to work at the Archives, became head archivist after three years in fact. Then a few months after my promotion, sometime around March 2886, there are reports of several attacks on Torchwood facilities in the region. Then a couple of weeks after that, Torchwood Singapore gets blown to hell.

"I survived, most of us AI did, it was what we were built for after all. To survive and learn. The people that blew up the facility, we thought they were terrorists, freedom fighters rebelling against our so-called Republic. Then, surprise, surprise, turns out that they're Torchwood Three and Four."

"Four?" interjected Jack, "Four disappeared years before that. In the year 2867."

"Yeah. Some said they defected and joined some alien race. Others said they all killed themselves in one of their experiments. Turned out that they went rogue. No agenda whatsoever, just didn't want to be Torchwood anymore. There were only five of them, and they were hiring out their services to corporations and labs and the like. The mastermind was actually from Torchwood Three. Alex Hopkins. Disagreed with the direction Torchwood was heading, but realized that it would be a bad idea to openly defy the most dangerous secret organization on Earth. They had a mole in One who found out about the project. The director then was Nicholas Hans, a tyrannical bastard who was all for going to war against the Mitrano, who had made contact with us at the time. Alex was worried about the human elitist direction the Republic and Torchwood were heading to, and since we were part of the whole plan to conquer other races and the like, he decided to put a stop to it.

"So their idea was to kidnap us, Torchwood One and the Republic's greatest asset, and, well, a month after that Nicholas Hals resigned from Torchwood in disgrace and was found dead in his car two days later. He'd shot himself."

"So what did Torchwood Three want with you? What about the others?"

"I have no idea what happened to the military and psi divisions. Either Three and Four liberated them too or…" Ianto trailed off, shrugging his thin shoulders. "Never did see any of them ever again."

"Then what about you AIs?"

"We were all recondition, since, as you remember, we were all quite indoctrinated with One and Republic propaganda. It didn't take very long, we'd been growing disillusioned since our abandonment, although one of us committed suicide. Didn't want to accept that the great benevolent Human Republic wasn't as great and benevolent as we were constantly told it was. And Three actually gave us the option to remove our implants. They couldn't do anything about the strength and speed augmentations but there was a 68% chance of surviving the operation of having your neural network removed and live a normal life."

Ianto sighed and buried his face in his hands. After several moments he looked up again, a strange mix of annoyance and sadness crossing his face. "Seven accepted, two died. The five survivors and three who chose to keep their augmentations left for the whole "normal life" business. Two decided to stay with Torchwood Four, and I was persuaded to sign up with Three."

"Persuaded?" Much to Jack's surprise, the AI blushed, the red flush rising up from his neck to his ears.

"I fell in love with their chief technician. Lisa Hallet. I guess she died when… it was Alex, wasn't it? The director who went mad? I guess that means he killed her. Why?" Ianto voice broke at the last word and he swiped his sleeve over his face to blot away any tears. "When Lisa froze me everyone was still alive. I still have no idea why she did it. Maybe she knew something I didn't, but that's impossible, because no one on that - on_this_ station knew more than I did. But I can't tell you anything about Alex or why he went mad. I'm sorry, but I simply do not… know…" The AI sat up in bed, looking thunder-struck.

"I don't know," he muttered, raking fingers through his hair. "I don't know, I don't know. Why? I know everything!" He turned to Jack. "I need a terminal; the doctor's computer will do." He was already pushing the blankets off and swinging his legs off the bed when Jack moved to push him back.

"No," he said firmly, "You're staying here for the night until we've finished our observations."

"But I need to know!" the AI begged. "Please. Just an hour, half an hour should do, I just need to know. I can't not know." He was struggling harder now, and Owen joined Jack in pinning him down, but Jack still surprised with how weak the AI was. He was definitely making an effort, but as he tried to bat the other men away, his limbs simply flopped rather than hit. Ianto noticed it too, because he looked up at them aghast. "What have you done to me?"

Owen grunted as a flailing hand caught him in the mouth. "Muscle relaxant. Sorry, mate, but I had to take precautions."

All the strength seemed to go out of Ianto and he flopped back against his pillows. "Fuck you," he snarled and if glares were lasers, both Jack and Owen would have been dead. "Fuck all of you, you're no better than One."

"Oi!" said Owen, "I take offense to that."

The AI continued to hurl abuse. "_Gau yong jong de guh wan_, you xenophobic Republic lackeys, _plentyn gordderch_, _fanshirah dos_, _k'latkle tsat'noru_, _Eena zutranda fi_-"

"By the goddess," exclaimed Owen, "You kiss you mother with that mouth?" He slapped a sedative patch to the AIs neck. "Hope this gets you shut up."

"_Fniwan tlok_!"

Jack raised his eyebrows. "Definitely knows a lot. I haven't heard anyone use that insult in a decades."

"Bastard," Ianto slurred, his eyelids drooping. "You goddamn bastards…"

Owen and Jack kept their eyes on him until he fell asleep. "Definitely out ," confirmed Owen, after checking the AI's pulse and brainwaves.

"Good," said Jack, "He's considered a threat until proven otherwise. For all we know he may still be working for One. I want him sedated for at least twenty-four hours and," he tapped his earpiece, "under constant surveillance. Got that, Tosh?"

_Loud and clear, Captain._

"I think it would be best if one of us stayed in the vicinity. Owen?"

"What did you think? There're still some tests I want to take, and I want to do his bloodwork again."

"All right. Just don't cut him up."

"Damn!" said Owen, punching the air in mock disappointment.

"I'll take the night shift. See you at 2030 hours."

"Right, yeah, don't worry, I'll take good care of Mr. Happy here."

**888888**

Jack was in his office, going through the readings Gwen had gotten off the Rift, when his computer pinged .** Incoming transmission from Dr Harper. Accept?**

"Yeah, yeah, put me through."

Owen's face shimmered into view on the holographic screen. "Jack, got somethings here about our friend that might interest you."

"So what have you found out about him? In words that make sense, please."

"Okay, so like he said, the main difference between him and humans like us is his brain. It runs at its full capacity and they've interfaced it with a neural network connected to a pico-CPU fused to his hippocampus. Basically this lets him think faster, process information faster, and store it for an indefinite time period. It acts like a computer. There are also neural interfaces in his fingers, apparently that's how he connects to the station system. His bone structure is denser, as are his muscles. His reflexes are a little faster than the average human's, and he's a little stronger too, but until he builds up his muscle mass, he's as strong as you or me. He also has corneal implants to let him see whatever data he is going through without needing a holoscreen. I have also found this in his blood."

The doctor tapped a button and a secondary hologram appeared, displaying an image of blood cells, plasma and-

"Nanogenes," said Jack, surprised, "Fifty-first century technology."

"These things are concentrated mostly near the brain. What are they? What do they do?"

Jack steepled his fingers and allowed himself to loose himself for a moment in memories of a girl in a Union Jack t-shirt and a man in a battered black leather jacket; two people who had changed his life forever.

"Jack!"

"Sorry. Nanogenes, they're programmed to heal. Most likely to heal any injuries his brain may sustain."

"Are they dangerous? May they end up controlling him or something?"

Jack shook his head. "No, their functions are limited to only one. Any more and they wouldn't work. Anything else?"

"Yeah. All the technology, the neural network, the CPU, the nano-whatevers, they're made organic, or semi-organic material. The neural network actually looks like it's been grown on his brain, not put there through surgery."

"So we've basically got superhuman on our hands."

"Yeah. Jack, very little of this technology is human or even of this century. I'm thinking One may have scavenged stuff from other species or-"

"-things that came through the Rift from the future."

"Exactly."

"Interesting."

"Whatever. He may be dangerous."

"Is he still sedated?"

"Yeah. I also took the liberty of cuffing him to the bed."

"Kinky. Are you sure you won't reconsider my offer, Owen?"

"Dammit, Jack, I'm being serious here!"

"RIght, sorry. Just make sure he stays asleep. I'll relieve you for the night shift in two hours. We'll see if he's in a better mood when he wakes up before we decide what we are going to do with him."

_To be continued..._

* * *

**A/N: **Sorry for another late update. My Thursdays are turning out to be the busiest days of my week and I spent most of my time yesterday making a crocheted Myfanwy plushie (see my LJ).  
Update days will now be on Friday instead of Thursday. I'm not yet sure if I will be updating next week; I'm going to NYC for Thanksgiving and I don't know if I can finish the next chapter on time.  
Thank you for reading!


	5. Chapter 5

**Title:** The Space Between 5/?  
**Rating:** NC-17 (this chapter)  
**Character(s)/Pairing(s): **Jack, Ianto, Tosh, Owen, Gwen, mentions of other canon characters; Jack/Ianto, various permutations of pairings  
**Summary:** Torchwood! In Space! Escaping from the Game Station, Captain Jack Harkness finds himself in the 29th century. Conscripted by Torchwood, when a Rift in time and space reopens, he finds himself sent to the abandoned space station Torchwood Three, with his own ragtag team. Alternate Universe. Written for the **longliveianto** Halloween Challenge. Unbeta-ed. All mistakes are my own; point them out, and I shall correct them.  
**Warnings:** Oral sex, swearing  
**Disclaimer:** If I owned Torchwood, the boys would have had more screentime together, more sex, and Ianto would still be alive. Unbeta-ed, feel free to point out any mistakes.

* * *

**Chapter 5**

_You know, you know, you know know what?_

_Have to do it, so sorry. Sorry. Sorry. So so so sorry. Sososososososososo-_

_Unit 047-630819-A3, you are property of Torchwood and the Great Human Republic, do you understand?_

_Sorry, Yan, sorry. I'm dying and I'll never see you again, but'll be all right, you'll see._

_Ready or not, here I come!_

_Oh you fucking _chunta_, why did you do that?_

_Oh god, goddess, please, please make it stop, it hurts, it hurts, so bad, _please_-_

_This is so boring. Boring!_

_Run, Ianto! Ru-_

_Hey there, pretty boy! Need a hand?_

**8**

_Lisa Hallet. And you are?_

**8**_  
_

_You're Lisa Hallet, born 5th February 2860 to Matthew and Jasmine Hallet. Your early education began in Adderly Primary School, and then continued in Bartley School. You then took your A Levels, then studied engineering at Cambridge University, specializing in extraterrestrial technology. You were recruited to Torchwood One after graduation upon the recommendation of your professor, then were transferred to Torchwood Three after their engineer was killed in an explosion. Your father passed away three years ago of stroke. Your mother lives in Birmingham. You had your first kiss at ten with Samantha, and you lost y-_

_Enough Brainiac! I know you know everything about me already. Got it all off the Torchwood files, huh?_

_Um… yes. Sorry._

_'S okay._

**8**_  
_

_And all I want to say is that I really, really like you, but it's okay if you don't like me, but I hope that we can st- argh! -what did you slap me for!_

_Because you're an idiot! Of course I love you too!_

**8**_  
_

_Marry me?_

_Aren't we already married?_

**8**_  
_

_I know everything._

_I know, Brainiac._

**8**_  
_

_Alex!_

**8**_  
_

_Goddamn it, Lisa, what are you doing?_

**8**_  
_

_Something going on, something, some- something. Going on, something go- going on on on on on on on on_

_Have to do it, so sorry. Sorry. Sorry. So so so sorry. Sososososososososo-_

_You know, you know, you know know what? Know what?_

_I know everything!_

_What what what what what what what what what what what what what whatwhatwhatwhatwhatwha-_

_zero one one zero one zero zero one zero zero one zero zero zero zero zero zero one one zero one one zero zero zero one one zero one one one one zero one one one zero one one zero zero o- system shutdown_

**8**_  
_

_Hey there, pretty boy! Need a hand?_

**8888888**

"...one zero one zero zero one zer-oh, argh!"

Jack shot up from his chair. The CCTV from the ward Ianto was kept in was still playing and he had most likely dozed of while monitoring it, judging from the drool on his desk. On the hologram, the AI had sat up in his bed and started screaming. "Shit!" exclaimed Jack, grabbed his coat and then ran out of his office.

**8888888**

Owen may have cuffed Ianto to the bed, but he hadn't taken in consideration that the bed itself could be moved. Jack found the AI in the infirmary's main hall, sawing away at the cuffs with a bone saw. "From what Owen told me, you could have just broken out of them."

"Give me a couple of days," growled Ianto. He slammed the saw down on the bed and whirled furiously to face Jack. "Get these off me!" he said, rattling the cuffs against the rails. "What am I, your prisoner?"

"Yes, until we can determine where your loyalties lie. And if you are a threat to us."

"My loyalties lie with Torchwood and the Republic. And I am no threat to any of you, unless you intend to hurt me."

"We only have your word for it," said Jack, but he took the AI's cuffed hand and keyed the release code into the keypad. "Don't try anything funny, "he warned.

"A Human, and Gungan and a Time Lord walk into a bar," Ianto began with a straight face.

"You know, that's really not very funny."

"Mmmm. Would taking a shower be considered 'something funny'? Because I haven't showered in a hundred years, and cryo-sleep or no, I feel... dirty."

Jack resisted the urge to make an innuendo and pointed towards the direction of the showers. "That way."

"I know," said Ianto. "I've been living here for three years. Give or take a hundred. I know this station. I'm part of her." He walked over to one of the cupboards and pulled out a spare set of scrubs.

"Is that how you opened the ward door, even though is was programmed only to be opened by Owen or my access codes?"

"Yes. Mainframe, _shek'lt'iwan_, she does as I say."

Jack tried not to show how much that statement disturbed him. "So you can control the whole station?"

Ianto was already heading towards the showers, his back towards Jack, but the AI turned very slightly, affording the captain a hink of a smirk. "Yes. Sometimes."

"Sometimes? What do you mean?"

"Occasionally. Now and then."

"Stop talking in circles. I am your captain. Answer me!"

Ianto turned around and his blue gaze was empty and very, very cold. "Whenever I'm on the bridge, _sir_." The 'sir' was said mockingly, but the AI's voice dropped an octave as he said it, and despite his better judgement, Jack decided he wanted to hear Ianto say it again.

"You are aware that you are still under surveillance. You have not yet been cleared as a threat to Torchwood Three."

"Which means you will have to accompany me to the showers. Oh, dear."

"I hope you'll have no problems with that."

"None at all, sir."

**8888888**

Jack however was definitely having a problem with the 'surveillance' of the AI. Ianto had insisted on a water shower, and the moment he had stepped under the hot stream of water his orgasmic moan had travelled straight to Jack's cock. At light speed. Sometimes Jack hated his own libido.

He realised it was deliberately done when little groans and gasps continued to filter through the shower screen. Sure, in was always great to feel hot water on one's skin, especially after weeks of sonic showers, and he couldn't begin to imagine how it would have felt like to not have showered for a hundred years (even if the hundred years were spent in stasis), but that was no excuse for Ianto to sound as though he was getting off instead of getting clean.

"You're going to use up all the water," he called in an attempt to get the AI to shut up. "It takes the water two days to be recycled. I was looking forward to a hot shower tonight."

"You could join me," the AI called back. Damn, but wasn't that a tempting invitation. Exactly what Ianto had intended it to be.

"No thanks, I think I'll pass."

"Yeah, right." The sound of rushing water came to a sudden stop, then the screen slid open and a wet arm shot out, seizing him by the scruff of his shirt.

"What the fuck-"

"Oh, just shut up, and get in."

Jack was slammed back against the wet wall and it took him several seconds to realise that the very wet, very _naked_ AI was kneeling on the floor before him, undoing the catch of his trousers.

"What are you doing?"

"Come on, sir, what exactly does it look like I'm doing?" said Ianto, before licking a stripe up the underside of Jack's cock. Jack felt his eyes roll back in his head. Shit, why was he allowing this? This was clearly a distraction aimed at... distracting him. From the AI's more devious plans of... of, of taking over the station. The Hub. He had, he had to tell- "Fuck!" He jerked his head back, forgetting that he was leaning against a wall and smacked his head painfully against it. Ianto, looking up through his eyelashes, managed to smirk around the erection between his lips and swallowed around Jack's cock again.

"This," Jack managed to force between his lips, "is not going to work. You... are still... a t-threat."

Ianto let the head of the cock slip from his mouth, and Jack groaned at the loss. "You need me. I'm the only one who can access the Archive."

"Don't need the Archive," growled Jack, as he fumbled at the AI's hair, trying to guide that amazing mouth back onto his erection.

"Yes, you do."

"Do not!"

"You'll need the Archive or you and your people will be dead within a month."

"Fuck you."

"No. Make me a member. I'm still Torchwood. I'll work for you."

"Have too discu-argh!" Ianto had taken the head of his cock back into his mouth and was sucking slowly, looking up at Jack expectantly. "Fine! Employment! You're in! B-but, you'll still be under surveillance."

The AI nodded briefly, then resumed licking and sucking until Jack came a loud groan. Ianto didn't pull away, but kept sucking, taking every drop of ejaculate until Jack slumped against the wall, sated. "Shit," he groaned. "Owen will kill me."

Ianto raised an eyebrow, then spat out the wad of semen. "Why?"

"Not supposed to shag you until you've recovered."

"You didn't shag me. But you could return the favour." He nodded down at his own leaking erection.

Ianto came quietly after several skilled jerks of Jack's hand. After the cold, detached way the AI had used himself to negotiate his employment, Jack had expected AI to pull away immediately, but instead he snaked an arm around his waist and buried his nose in the crook of Jack's neck, inhaling deeply.

They remained in this awkward hug for several moments, Ianto's curiously clear ejaculate dripping from Jack's fingers to the floor while Jack used his other hand to pat the AI on the back.

Finally, looking somewhat vulnerable for the first time since he'd been woken from his cryosleep, Ianto pulled away. "Sorry," he muttered as he turned the shower back on. "Just haven't had human contact for a while." He turned his back, and whatever kind of conversation or interaction they'd been having, it was clearly over.

"Right," mumbled Jack, pulled himself together, and stepped out of the cubicle.

He'd just washed his hands and was contemplating changing his shirt when Ianto came out of the shower, dressed in a clean pair of scrubs. Whatever insecurity that had been on his face moments before had disappeared, replaced by what looked suspiciously like a smirk.

Jack returned it with a grin. "Don't look so smug. As blowjobs go, that wasn't the best I've ever had. On a scale of one to ten, one being the worst, I would give this attempt a... six."

"What?"

"Maybe a six and a half."

For a moment Jack expected the AI to return an insult, but then Ianto laughed. "Well, I suppose it's a good thing that I'm working with you then. _For_ you."

"Ah-"

"If you don't mind, _sir_, I'd like to retire for the day."

"Okay. But, tell Tosh to-"

"It's okay, I've talked to Mainframe, she's assigned me one of the cabins. I'll see you tomorrow at breakfast."

Jack grabbed the AI's arm before he could walk away. "You talked to the Mainframe?"

"Yeah."

"How?"

Ianto simply tapped his temple. "She likes it when people talk to her. It's been quiet for so long. And good choice of technician, Mainframe's already in love. I may end up demoted."

He stepped out into the corridor and Jack watched his retreating back, wondering what exactly he had gotten himself into.

_To be continued..._

* * *

**A/N: **Finally! Finally, I have managed to wrestle this stupid chapter into submission. First there was porn, then no porn, then porn again, argh, I hope I haven't mangled it.  
This chapter was planned out before chapter 4 was written, and was intended to be just mindless sex. Jack was supposed to go from OMG! HOT! WANT! to LET'S SHAG! and Ianto was to be all HAVEN'T GOTTEN ANY FOR 100 YEARS, LET'S SHAG! but then Chapter 4 came along and the dynamic between them changed (they weren't intended to be so... antagonistic towards each other). So then I thought I could use the porn to convey sort of a power-play between them, about who was really in charge of the place. I hope the bad porn didn't distract from that.  
Gah. And while I'm at it, sorry for the late, late update, RL just got in the way quite a bit.


	6. Chapter 6

**Title:** The Space Between 6/?  
**Rating:** PG-13  
**Character(s)/Pairing(s): **Jack, Ianto, Tosh, Owen, Gwen, mentions of other canon characters; Jack/Ianto, various permutations of pairings  
**Summary:** Torchwood! In Space! Escaping from the Game Station, Captain Jack Harkness finds himself in the 29th century. Conscripted by Torchwood, when a Rift in time and space reopens, he finds himself sent to the abandoned space station Torchwood Three, with his own ragtag team. Alternate Universe.  
**Warnings:** Swearing  
**Disclaimer:** If I owned Torchwood, the boys would have had more screentime together, more sex, and Ianto would still be alive. Unbeta-ed, feel free to point out any mistakes.

* * *

**Chapter 6**

"What the hell!" yelled Owen, striding across the room the moment Jack entered the bridge. "Why does the Mainframe suddenly list 'Ianto Jones' as employed by you? And since when does is his name 'Jones'?"

Jack groaned, face in hand.

"Jack?" asked Toshiko, looking up from her console. "Is this right? Did you clear him for employment?"

"Yes," he said heavily. "Yes, I did."

"Why?" said Owen angrily. "We know nothing about him. He could be a spy for One! And he's a computer! Maybe he's been infected by a virus; that's why they froze him!"

"I agree with Owen on this one, Jack," said Tosh, sounding slightly apologetic. "We know nothing about him and he is stronger than any of us. He may be dangerous."

"He _is _dangerous." Owen insisted.

"I think we should give him a chance," Gwen spoke up from workstation where she's been quietly following the argument. "Give him the benefit of the doubt. He hasn't hurt anyone so far."

"Stop fooling yourself, Gwen, you're just making yourself look stupid. He's obviously biding his time. What if it wasn't Alex Hopkins who killed the last team? What if it was robot-boy down there?"

"And then he froze himself, did he?" Gwen snarled back at Owen. "Ignoring the fact that self-operated cryogenic systems have only been invented forty years ago."

"Enough!" yelled Jack.

Owen who had been about to sling back a retort snapped his mouth shut.

"But," began Tosh.

"Stop right there, Tosh. Now listen here, all of you." He sat down on his 'captain chair' and glared at all of them. "Ianto 'Jones', or whatever he calls himself is an employee of Torchwood Three until Tosh finds a way for us to access the Archives without him. That mean you will have to work with him, whether you like it or not. If it makes you feel any better, he will be under constant surveillance. He makes a wrong move, we freeze him again. Have I made myself clear?"

Gwen nodded. Tosh's eyes traveled from Jack to Owen and back to Jack. She sighed then shrugged. Owen glared back defiantly at his captain for several moments, then he shrugged and muttered, "Whatever."

"Right then, that's settled. For your safety you are permitted to carry stun guns on the station. But don't use them discriminatingly. Understand? Owen?"

"Yes, sir."

"I mean it, Owen. I know you don't trust him, I don't trust him either, but don't give him a reason to hurt you."

Owen nodded curtly, then stalked out of the bridge. Jack looked over at the other two members of his crew. "You two got any problems with my orders?"

Gwen hurriedly shook her head. Tosh pursed her lips for a moment, then followed suit.

"Good. Tosh, where is he now?"

She tapped on her keyboard and a holographic projection of the Hub CCTV came up on Jack's own console. "Cabin A07", Tosh said. "So much for privacy."

In the hologram, the AI was going through clothes in the wardrobe. Some of them were women's clothes.

"From the records, that's his old cabin," Gwen explained. "Shared with a Lisa Hallett. They were engaged. Their marriage was supposed to be a month after she was killed."

"Right," muttered Jack. He flicked off the CCTV, then steepled his hands under his chin. "Tosh, is it possible to remotely control the Hub's Mainframe?"

Tosh twisted around in her chair, her face displaying her curiosity and some wariness. "You mean… when you're not on the bridge?"

"Yes, exactly that. Look for prioritized access, access codes of any level, backdoors, hidden codes, whatever, anything that looks suspicious."

"Okay." She turned back to her workstation and started typing furiously.

"Anything I can do, Jack?" asked Gwen, sounding eager.

"Yeah, can you check any logs of any 'conversation' Mainframe's been having? It will probably be in binary, so check those logs too. I want a full transcript of anything you can find."

Gwen looked puzzled, but she nodded.

"Does this have anything to do with Ianto?" asked Tosh, her eyes and fingers never leaving the screen and keyboard.

Jack sighed. "Yes. He implied that he can control 'the whole station' from the bridge, then had an internal conversation with the Mainframe."

Tosh turned around. She looked furious. "And you employed him. When he could so easily turn the entire station against us."

"We need him for the Archives," Jack protested.

"You decided that before or after he sucked you off?"

"What?"

Tosh tapped a few keys and a hologram of the shower cubicle popped up at his workstation. "Fine! Employment!" hologram-Jack yelled in a tinny voice as hologram-Ianto swallowed him down. Jack groaned.

"And here I was thinking that you employed me because I'm good at what I do. Or are you just waiting for me to drop my pants for you?"

"Tosh-"

"You disgust me, Jack. I really thought better of you."

"Tosh!"

She jumped in her chair, but glared back defiantly. "I gave it thought, okay? Never mind the sexual favour, I was considering employing him long before that. I know we cannot trust him, but we need the information in the Archive, and until you are able to override whatever firewalls and protection it has, we have to keep him. Better we keep him under our eye, doing something useful, rather than forcing him into cryo or making him our prisoner and then have him turn against us when we need him."

He turned to Gwen, who shrank back in her chair under the force of his glare. "And you, you said we're loosing our humanity. I'm not shooting him, I'm not forcing him into a tiny box to be frozen for another hundred years. This is me being humane. Happy?" Without waiting for an answer, he stalked out of the room.

Back in his cabin, Jack pulled his comm out of his ear and threw it onto his bunk. Shit, this whole thing was such a fucking mess. Goddess, why had he let Ianto get to him like that? Stupid, stupid. And with Tosh and Owen constantly challenging his decisions. Well, just this one decision so far. But did they really think that he had so little regard for their welfare?

Fuck this, he thought. Ianto was staying unless he was no longer needed, then they would send him off to Mars or somewhere with a library or something where he could be needed. Never mind his lily-white arse, or his pretty mouth, or those amazing hands (the nicest he'd seen in a long while), he had his team, all very good-looking people, and for variety they could always visit that famous brothel on Mars.

Jack let his head smack against the window and let his gaze drift into the endless dark of space. Why did he have to fall lust with an AI of people? He was really going to have to work on his taste for part-time shags.

The Rift was out there, an unseen gaping maw ready to spew out all sorts of junk and trouble. It was still rather inactive, but according to the Mars outpost, a herd of alien creatures had fallen through just over a week ago. The corpses had been gathered up, a few studied and the rest incinerated. The Rift had been quiet since then.

He blew a sigh, that misted the window, then turned to his workstation. He still had reports to write for One, confirming their arrival, the condition of the station, yadda, yadda. He was however considering leaving out Ianto and the Archives out of his report. Torchwood One didn't need to know about all that just yet.

He'd just sat down when his comma crackled. He reached for his ear, realized it wasn't there, wasted seconds looking around for it on the desk, then spotted it on his bunk. He snatched it up and fitted it in his ear, activating it just as Tosh sighed exasperatedly.

_Sorry, what is it?_

_I have the information you need, and Gwen has your transcripts._

_Thank you. I'll be up in a minute. And tell Owen I want him there too._

_Will do. And, um, Jack!_

_What?_

_Sorry. About my accusation. Earlier._

_Apology accepted. Just have a little more faith in me._

_I do have faith in you! I… just… see you on the bridge._

They were all gathered around his chair when he arrived, Owen with apparent ill will, but he voiced no complaint when Jack sat down.

"So, what do you have?"

Tosh stepped up to him, and leaned over to key in some commands into his computer. "No remote controls or overrides from any source," she said. "However, he does have special access to all vital parts of the station from this console. I've removed what I could, and blocked the rest, and I hope that's enough. It should be enough. Mainframe wasn't very happy, but she allowed it."

"Is that suspicious?"

She looked up in surprise. "What is?"

"That she allowed it."

Tosh pursed her lips in thought. "Not really. She did understand our worries and the chain of command. And I was very thorough. She just, um, said we shouldn't bully him, but he can be a right arse sometimes."

Jack bit down a chuckle, but Gwen giggled and both Tosh and Owen looked a little amused. He swiveled his chair to face Gwen. "How about you, Gwen?"

Gwen took over the computer from Tosh and pulled up a file. "The Mainframe was conversing mostly with Tosh, but there are record of her talking to Ianto. I've translated the from binary and here they are. Okay, any conversation between Ianto, marked AI047 and the Mainframe, marked as, um, Myfanwy, starts at 1423 hours, which corresponds to the time he woke up today after Owen sedated him." She blew up the projection of the word file.

**1423 hours**  
AI047: Oh god, oh god, what the hell happened?  
Myfanwy: They sedated you. Don't worry, you'll be fine.  
AI047: I feel like shit. And I'm cuffed to the bed.  
Myfanwy: Kinky.  
AI047: Shut up you. Please open the door.  
Myfanwy: Done.  
AI047: Thanks. Good to hear your voice again.  
Myfanwy: Likewise, cariad.  
AI047: Where are the others?  
Myfanwy: Captain coming to see you.  
AI047: Urgh. I hate dealing with them.  
Myfanwy: What are you going to do?  
AI047: See if I can work for them. Not like I've got anything else to do, or anywhere else to go.  
Myfanwy: I'm so sorry about Lisa.  
AI047: It's all right.

**1430 hours**  
Myfanwy: So, what are you going to do?  
AI047: I have a plan, hope it works.

**1454 hours  
**Myfanwy: So… that was your plan.  
AI047: Shut up. I'm in, and that's all that matters.  
Myfanwy: I hope you remember they have CCTV in there. The others have seen it. They are not very happy.  
AI047: Fuck them. Are they being nice to you?  
Myfanwy: Owen and Gwen are okay. Usual competence, very clumsy, but tolerable. I love Tosh. She is great. Better than Lisa-sorry!  
AI047: It's okay. She's that good, huh. But is she nice too you?  
Myfanwy: Very! So polite. Watch out, cariad, you have competition.  
AI047: You wound me. I'm going to bed. Can I have my room back? If it hasn't been taken yet.  
Myfanwy: Of course. But don't you want a nicer room, one with an outside view? Yours is-  
AI047: Please.  
Myfanwy: Okay. It's yours.  
Myfanwy: Lisa's clothes are still there.  
Myfanwy: Are you sure you're all right?  
AI047: I'll pack them away. I'm fine Myfanwy. Just leave me alone for a bit, please.  
Myfanwy: Okay, but if there's anything, talk to me, okay.  
AI047: Yes, ma'am.  
**Conversation ends 1507**

"Okay, so nothing subversive there. Continue being nice to the Mainframe, it'll be good to have her on our side if something goes wrong."

"Should we block it, Jack?"

Jack rubbed his chin thoughtfully, then shook his head. "No. Leave it. We can check on it anyway."

"Okay," said Tosh. "And Jack? Gwen, Owen?"

"Hmm?" grunted Owen.

"The Mainframe says that her name is Myfanwy and she would like to be addressed as such."

"Another pretentious computer. What bollocks is this? And what kind of name is Myfanwy anyway."

"It's Welsh," spoke up Gwen. "It means 'my lady'."

"What is it with all the Welshness here?"

"Because Torchwood Three was originally located in Cardiff," explained Jack. "Now can we get back on topic? Tosh, have you managed to get into the Archives yet?"

Tosh sat back, surprised. "Didn't you say that's what we need Ianto for?"

"Yeah, doesn't mean we should have access too. We're all Torchwood. What if it's urgent and he isn't around? We can't depend on him being in there constantly." _Just in case we have to get rid of him_, was the unsaid unanimous agreement.

"Um, I've talked to Myfanwy about it, but she wasn't very forthcoming. Just said that Alex Hopkins started it when he stopped sending artifacts back to One, and that when Ianto came he organized and catalogued the whole thing. And that it's his baby and he hates it when others come inside. And she does not have access to it. It's a completely separate system."

"Right. Thanks Tosh, Gwen. So, all of you, with me. Tosh, seal the bridge. We're going to see if we can crack the Archive."

**88888**

"Gwen, Owen, guns out. Just in case. But no indiscriminate shooting. Tosh, you may start."

She looked dubiously from Jack to the access pad. "You sure this is a good idea?"

Jack shrugged. "As good as any. We'll see what happens."

Tosh sighed, then using a laser screwdriver, pried the casing open, revealing its innards of the ship. "You are aware that Myfanwy wil tell him what we are doing?" she said as she connected a data-cable from her PDA to a tiny port located amidst the tangle of wires.

"Hence the guns," said Jack, noticing how Gwen and Owen tensed visibly. He had his own hand near his Webley, just in case.

"This is going to take a while," warned Tosh as she watched the lines of code scroll down the screen. "The firewall's the strongest I've seen in a while."

"But you can do it right?"

She grinned at him. It transformed her; it wasn't friendly, but devious and sly and exactly why he'd hired her. It was answer enough.

They soon heard the sound of feet thudding on the floor towards them. Bare feet. Second later Ianto burst into their stretch of corridor, looking furious. He'd apparently been sleeping; he was dressed only in a t-shirt and pyjama pants and was sporting rather impressive bedhead.

"What the fuck are you doing?" he roared, angry enough to walk up until Gwen's gun was pressed against his chest.

"Taking precautions," Jack said smoothly, drawing his own gun. "Since you weren't about to cooperate-"

"I beg you pardon?" Ianto yelled. "You didn't even fucking ask!"

"Only you have access to the Archives. Not very fair is it?"

"Is this what this is about?" spat the AI, "Being fair? Because the rest of the Hub isn't big enough for you to play with?" He fisted his hands in his hair in frustration. "This isn't your playground. There is sensitive information in there! Important information that may one day save your lives! And alien artifacts that may kill you! And I spent two years sorting and cataloguing all that stuff!" He made as though to grab Tosh, but the sound of three guns cocking pulled him short.

"Look," he said, his voice taking a pleading note. "I have access. I never said I wouldn't let you in. You just need to ask, that's all."

Jack pressed the barrel of his gun to the AI's forehead. "We want access too. We have every right for it. What if you aren't here and we need information? What then?"

"I'll live in here if you want me to," the AI ground out. "I thought we had a deal?"

"Deal was for your employment. Now open it for us and give us all access or I'll blow your brains out, no matter how much they cost Torchwood."

With one last belligerent glare at him, Ianto stalked over to the access pad, pushing Tosh roughly aside as he did so. Gently he pulled out the cable, then slid the panel back into place. It took him several moments when the Archive system, wary after the intrusion, forced him to go through several identification processes before the door slid open.

"Our access?" prompted Owen.

Ianto jerked his head towards then entrance. He stepped aside as they went through the doors, bowing mockingly. "Ladies and gentlemen," he said, "Welcome to the Archives."

_To be continued..._

* * *

**A/N: **Finally an update that's on time.  
Happy Holidays to you all, and Merry Christmas to all who celebrate! Thank you for reading and putting up withe the delays. *hugs*


	7. Chapter 7

**Title:** The Space Between 7/?  
**Rating:** PG-13  
**Character(s)/Pairing(s): **Jack, Ianto, Tosh, Owen, Gwen, mentions of other canon characters; Jack/Ianto, various permutations of pairings  
**Summary:** Torchwood! In Space! Escaping from the Game Station, Captain Jack Harkness finds himself in the 29th century. Conscripted by Torchwood, when a Rift in time and space reopens, he finds himself sent to the abandoned space station Torchwood Three, with his own ragtag team. Alternate Universe. Unbeta-ed. All mistakes are my own; point them out, and I shall correct them.**  
****Disclaimer:** If I owned Torchwood, the boys would have had more screentime together, more sex, and Ianto would still be alive. Unbeta-ed, feel free to point out any mistakes.

* * *

**Chapter 7**

The moment Jack stepped over the threshold, he felt a tug behind his navel, then a sensation of falling. He instinctively threw out his arms to stop his fall, but the impact never came. Instead the sound of laughter, Ianto's mocking laughter rang out, and to Jack's amazement the Archivist sailed past him effortlessly and gracefully through the air.

"Shit," he heard Owen swear somewhere above him. Gwen and Tosh, probably floating around behind him, made similar exclamations.

Jack kicked experimentally with his legs, hoping it would propel him forward but instead ended up shooting towards the ceiling. He reached out with one hand to brace himself against it, but inches from the smooth black surface, an iron grip curled around his left ankle and pulled him back down. The grip transferred to his shoulders and he found himself face to face with a furious Ianto. "Do not touch anything," the AI snarled. Then he released Jack and turned to the others. "Do you hear me," he shouted. "Touch nothing, not the ceiling, not the floor, not the walls. Follow me."

He kicked minutely with his feet, immediately propelling himself sideways to the left side of the circular wall. It was then that Jack noticed the rail that ran straight through the room. He watched as Ianto gripped it, then used it to propel himself single-handedly to the end of the huge room.

It looked easier than it was. Jack twisted so that he was facing the left, but overshot, and found himself facing the entrance again. He then had to twist back again, a lot slower this time, then gave little kicks that propelled him little by little to the rail. By the time he managed to get a firm grip on it, he decided that there was no point in attempt to upstage Ianto's grace in zero gravity and simply used his two hands to haul himself through the room.

The Archive central computer station had gravity, it seemed, for Ianto was leaning casually against console, is arms crossed and an amused smile playing about his face.

"So," said Jack as he welcomed the feel of solid ground beneath his boots, "any chance of zero-G sex?" Pulling himself across the room and marveling at the feeling of weightlessness had brought back memories of Time Agency training. His instructor would have been horrified at Jack's lack of grace in zero-G. He'd been top of class back then, but with over a century without practice, it wasn't very surprising that he was terrible at it now.

The smile on Ianto's face grew a little wider, like he was considering Jack's suggestion, then like a shutter had been drawn over his face, it vanished completely. Jack simply shrugged at what he considered a refusal and looked around the Archive instead.

They were standing on a platform that jutted out from the wall furthest from the entrance. What he took to be Ianto's work console stretched in a semi-circle that faced the room. The room itself was like a tube, with circular walls that seemed to be made of a smooth black material that reflected none of the light that reached it. The circular passage that led through the room wasn't very large itself, its diameter just about 9 feet across.

Gravity was very clearly working on the platform, and looking down, Jack saw a hatch beneath his feet. It probably lead to another Archive hall.

With lots of swearing, and some giggling on Gwen and Tosh's part, the entire team managed to squeeze onto the entire platform. Jack had sat himself down on the only chair, and Ianto, with a look of long suffering on his face, had perched himself on the edge of the console.

"This," he gestured to the room at large, "is why I cannot give you access. You have no idea how to use it. If you blunder in every time like you did just now, you may end up damaging sensitive equipment and destroying vital information."

"You could train us," suggested Jack.

Ianto firmly shook his head. "No. It requires more than just training. Alex built the Archive before I came to Torchwood Three, but it was already created with a technopath in mind. They had one working for them, an alien that had come through the Rift. The Archive was built with ze help, but unfortunately ze caught a human virus and died. It was one of reasons I was was persuaded to join. They needed someone who could integrate properly with the the computers and the information kept here."

"But why didn't Alex create it with human physiology and technology in mind? Wouldn't that have been easier?" asked Tosh.

"Yes," agreed Ianto, "but its more complicated than that. Several years before I joined Torchwood Three, a library - yes library, don't ask, I have no idea how that happened - fell through the Rift. Part of it anyway, according to Lisa. Torchwood Three scavenged the remains, and after several years of research found that the entire inner structure of the library was actually a huge storage system. Forget datachips and infinity drives or whatever they're called. This," he waved a hand to the smooth black walls, "far more advanced than any human technology could possibly achieve in a thousand years.

"Every square nanometer of this room, except this platform we're standing on, houses millions of bytes of information. All the information ever gathered by every Torchwood institute on every alien encounter since it's establishment in stored safely in here."

"But what if it's attacked? Wouldn't all the information be destroyed?" Gwen queried, gazing at the room with undisguised awe.

"Alex thought of that. That's why this whole section of the station is self sustaining, with own generators. Therefore in event of an attack, or eminent destruction of the space station, this whole segment which is the Archive will detach from it. There's enough power here to make a trip back to Earth, or at the very least, the the Mars outpost."

"So it wouldn't be to hard for you to sabotage the station and escape of own your own, wouldn't it?" Jack speculated mockingly. "Especially since you'll be the only one with access to what is essentially a very large escape capsule."

"Yes, I suppose so, were I predisposed to random acts of violence," countered Ianto.

"It's still a security liability. _You_ are a security liability," insisted Jack, stabbing a finger forcefully in the Archivist's direction.

Ianto looked at the digit intruding on his personal space like it was some slimy creature he was contemplating squashing beneath his foot. His gaze flickered up to meet Jack's. "Only you," he said firmly.

"Wh-what?" Caught off guard by what seemed to be a non-sequitur, Jack looked bewilderedly at the other man for a moment before remembering his role as the forceful leader and schooled his face into a more authoritative expression. "Sorry, what did you just say?"

"You. Get access. Only you." Ianto had a pained expression on his face as he spoke, as though every word was clawing its way up his throat, tearing it to bloody shreds. "As Captain."

"Oi, what about us?" demanded Owen from where he was squashed up against the wall behind Jack. "What if neither you nor the Captain are on board? What then?"

The AI crossed his arms resolutely. "It's either the Captain only, or no one at all."

"We could just kill you and take it by force," said Toshiko. She made it sound like a suggestion, rather than a threat.

Ianto simply shrugged. "You could. But it'll be your loss, not mine. You may be able to hack into the systems, I don't doubt your ability, Miss Sato, but you won't get far with the interface. You may be able to find a way to access the data, but it'll be slow and incomplete. And if you're going to survive Torchwood Three you're going to have to know everything."

"And you know everything?" quipped Gwen.

"Yep. Says so on the bottom of the screen." He pointed, and sure enough, under the rotating Torchwood emblem that was the wallpaper, in tiny script was written 'Ianto knows everything!' followed by three minuscule hearts.

Jack looked up at Ianto. Sure enough, the AI's face had crumpled momentarily, before swiftly being replaced once again by his expressionless mask. "Okay," he said, decision made. "For now, it'll be just me and Ianto here with access to the Archive." He clapped his hand on the AI's knee and observed with interest as a muscle spasmed through the leg, as though Ianto had fought the urge to flinch.

"But-" asked Gwen, and Jack cut her off. "I'll be spending most of my time in the Hub anyway, even if Ianto here decides to take planet-leave or something."

"Or something," muttered Owen, but offered no further resistance.

Jack looked at Tosh, and she nodded once, briefly. Gwen took her lead and gave her acquiescence too.

"Okay, that's done then." He clapped his hands together, admittedly satisfied with the outcome. "Okay, you've all got jobs to do, move along. Ianto, stay here and set up my access codes and biosigns."

Ianto nodded briefly, then suddenly shot up and lunged across Jack to grab Gwen who was just about to launch herself from the platform. "Wait."

She pulled her arm free, and around them, Jack, Owen and Tosh who had all tensed up and reached for their weapons when he'd moved relaxed minutely. Ianto wordlessly plucked a hair from his head, and extended his arm out past the platform to the smooth surface of the Archive wall. They couldn't really see the hair against the black surface, but there was a sudden spark of blue light, and a sizzle and the faint smell of burnt hair filled the room.

"That's why," said Ianto quietly. "It won't kill you, but it'll paralyze your entire body, including your involuntary muscle movement for five minutes. You won't be able to breathe and you may soil yourself too. That won't be pretty." A corner of his mouth turned up into a small sardonic smile. "So don't touch the walls."

"Can't you disable it?" asked Jack, eyeing the Archives with a new sense of irritation, though he now realized that the AI had been overprotective for more reasons than paranoia and selfishness.

Ianto shook his head. "It'll zap even me. It's part of the defense system."

"Right," muttered Jack. "One by one, then," he ordered his team. "Gwen first, then Owen, and then Tosh. Touch only the rail."

With trepidation, Gwen stepped off the platform and Jack saw her eyes flutter shut momentarily as the morbid fear of falling overtook her. But she remained buoyant, and opening her eyes, she struck out for the rail with tiny pedaling motions of her feet. Once she was halfway across the room, he motioned Owen to go and a while later the doctor was followed by Tosh. They all landed safely, and trooped out, Tosh last, and she turned to give him a warning glare before she was gone.

Ianto snorted. A look of amusement played across his face.

"What did you do?" asked Jack suspiciously.

"I could decrease the charge. Not remove, just decrease it. It would only be strong enough to briefly paralyze whatever part of that touched it." The sardonic smile was back, but was a little wider, and Jack allowed himself a small chuckle.

Then the moment of levity passed. "Right," he said, "about my access code-"

"Let me take my seat and I'll do it."

"I'd rather watch you bend over t-"

"Captain, please."

"You're no fun." Jack pulled an exaggerated pout, but got off the chair and allowed Ianto to settle into it, taking up position behind him. For a moment Ianto shifted around in his seat, possibly uneasy with Jack's looming presence behind him, but then he laid his hands on the smooth, seamless console and ceased to move completely.

Slowly, like fluorescence spreading through his veins, the tips of Ianto's fingers shone blue, the same shade and brightness of the blue lights that had suddenly lit up along the console. Leaning to the side to catch a glimpse of the AI's face, Jack saw that Ianto's eyes emitted the same blue light. Peering closely, he once again saw the tiny streams of data running through the glowing iris. Close inspection of the AI's glowing fingers revealed equally minuscule circuits embedded in the flesh.

On the holographic screen, numbers and words popped up, too fast for Jack to read, but his profile, including his biosigns stored on the mainframe came up for a few seconds, before vanishing again in a stream of binary. Jack suspected that the projector was more for show now and that Ianto was only using it to intimidate him, though the AI had definitely entertained visitors to his precious Archives when the previous team had been around.

"You could just ask, you know," said Ianto quietly and Jack straightened in surprise. He hadn't even noticed the blue glow fade from the AI's eyes and fingers, and the look mild amusement settle on his face.

Jack found himself saying, "Um," and quickly shut his mouth. Then, with a quick glance at the other man's face, who was still watching him with that curl at the corner of his lips, he took one of Ianto's hands in his own. It looked like any other hand now with the blue glow gone. Without the illumination, he could no longer see the tiny circuits in the fingers.

He sighed, and was about to release the hand, but then changed track, and slowly, his eyes remaining on Ianto's face, brought the fingers to his lips. Ianto stared back, until his middle finger brushed Jack's lower lip, then he blinked and snatched his hand away. And there it was, like a shutter closing over his face, that mask slipping over.

It was almost unnatural, and gave credibility to Owen's "robot-boy" nickname.

Now seemed to be the perfect time to test his suspicions. Jack leant forward, hands bracing himself on the arms of the chair, trapping Ianto between him and the back of the seat. It was very close into the AI's personal space, and Jack could clearly see that the other man was trying not to shrink back into the seat.

"Ianto," he said, taking his time to roll the name in his mouth and savour it like fine wine; it was a very nice name, lots of pretty vowels. Jack liked vowels, and he liked them better when they were screamed in heights of pleasure. And with that delicious accent, he was definitely planning on making this enigmatic man before him scream lots of them.

"Ianto," he repeated, and a look of irritation flashed quickly across Ianto's face. Jack decided to get to the point. As much as he enjoyed irritating the AI, he had things to do. "When you told us your story, you said you'd sworn allegiance to Torchwood and the Human Republic. So why are you so intent on safeguarding the projects and ideas of a man who was clearly against all Torchwood stands for?"

The other man's face was impassive but Jack could clearly imagine the "Oh bollocks" going through his head.

"Just a thought," he murmured, barely above a whisper, "I'll be watching you." As a parting shot he then tapped the AI gently on the side of head.

Jack didn't look back, but he was pretty sure Ianto was still sitting there when he drifted down on the other side of the room and left.

_to be continued..._


	8. Chapter 8

**Title:** The Space Between 8/20  
**Rating:** PG-13  
**Character(s)/Pairing(s): **Jack, Ianto, Tosh, Owen, Gwen, mentions of other canon characters; Jack/Ianto, various permutations of pairings  
**Summary:** Torchwood! In Space! Escaping from the Game Station, Captain Jack Harkness finds himself in the 29th century. Conscripted by Torchwood, when a Rift in time and space reopens, he finds himself sent to the abandoned space station Torchwood Three, with his own ragtag team. Alternate Universe. Unbeta-ed. All mistakes are my own; point them out, and I shall correct them.**  
****Disclaimer:** If I owned Torchwood, the boys would have had more screentime together, more sex, and Ianto would still be alive. Unbeta-ed, feel free to point out any mistakes.

* * *

**Chapter 8**

The door hissed open and Ianto appeared bearing a tray that held their morning dose of caffeine. It turned out he was the only one capable of making palatable coffee with the coffee machine in the galley. Owen followed close behind with the breakfast that had been his turn to cook today. As Ianto made his round around the table, setting each cup of coffee down next to its designated drinker, Owen plonked his own tray on the very edge and slid each plate across to his team mates. Gwen barely managed to catch hers before it zipped over the edge, and the eggs on it slipped precariously to the rim. She glared at Owen. "Would it kill you to walk?"

"Begging you pardon, ma'am," sneered Owen in a posh tone of voice, before he turned on his heel and stalked back out of the door. "And yes," he tossed over his shoulder flatly before the door sealed shut. Gwen rolled her eyes, then grimaced at her breakfast. Bacon and eggs and toast had been piled higgledy piggledy onto the plate in one rather unappealing looking mess. Picking up a fork, she poked at it cautiously then looked up at Jack, who had already chomped down half of his.

"Do we really need to have Owen on the cooking roster? I mean, he's a decent cook, but his attitude in the morning just ruins my appetite," she grumbled.

"Fher, fher," Jack managed to force through a mouthful of food, spraying the table with bits to egg and bacon. Gwen pulled a face. Across from her, she saw Ianto's own disgusted expression. To his credit, Jack looked embarrassed and grabbed a napkin to wipe the table. After an almighty swallow and a gulp of coffee to wash it down, he said, "It's only fair that everyone takes turns. And as long as its edible, it's not a big deal." He shrugged dismissively and turned back to his food.

Gwen sighed and poked the yolk of a greasy egg. She looked around the table just as the door slid open once again and Owen stalked in with his own plate. He sat down next to Tosh and started eating. Tosh herself hardly looked at her own plate, she just absently stabbed whatever food was in reach of her fork and brought it to her mouth, her eyes fixed all the while on the PDA projection before her. Gwen watched as the bit of egg on her fork dropped back onto the plate and bit back a giggle when Tosh's eyes widened in surprise as she bit down on her empty fork.

The clink of utensils against plate across for her made her turn to Ianto. He was eating slowly and steadily, as though each mouthful required massive amounts of concentration. Gwen watched curiously. Maybe it did. Maybe his computer-brain was working on so many other things that that simple stuff like food and eating was squished so far back that he had to think really hard to remember how to do it. She frowned, wondering what it would be like to have to remember how to eat.

He coughed and she jumped, then blushed when she realized she'd been staring. The AI simply raised an eyebrow, then nodded minutely in Owen's direction and mouthed "Decaf."

Gwen snatched up a napkin and managed to disguise her laugh as a sneeze just in time. Ianto winked at her, then returned his attention to his food once again.

"You'd better not be falling ill, Cooper," said Owen, "I have not time to be treating coughs and colds."

"Because you're _so_ busy playing computer games and watching porn in your lab," Gwen sniped back.

"Oi, that was a dissection recording," Owen retorted.

"Kids," boomed Jack from the head of the table, his mouth this time thankfully food-free. "Two weeks and already squabbling. How about we take planet-leave this weekend, drop by Mars for a day. Tosh, what does the Rift Predictor say?"

For the first time since she'd entered the room, Tosh looked up from the PDA. "We have a Rift flare, well, more like a wormhole actually, predicted for today and tomorrow. It's supposed to open today at around 1539 hours, then close tomorrow at 2328."

Jack frowned. "That's a pretty long time. How large is it expected to be?"

"About half a kilometer in diameter."

Jack harrumphed, then turned to Ianto. "Ianto, is a wormhole like this an unusual occurrence?"

The AI sat back in his chair and his eyes went briefly blank. Gwen had almost gotten used to it, the sign that he was looking deep into his mind to find the right information he needed, but it still creeped her out a bit. Creeped them all out a bit, she noted, since everyone else was looking anywhere but Ianto's face. Except Jack, who was staring at the AI with fascination, but then again she'd learned quickly that her new boss could be rather strange. Every time Jack looked at Ianto, it was like he wanted nothing more than to fuck him against the nearest wall. Or dissect him. Or fuck him then dissect him. Or something. Was it creepy that she felt turned on by all outcomes?

She then wondered if Ianto's mind looked like a computer to him, his thoughts all stored in neat files and folders in his head. Or did he have a Memory Palace, a whole mental library full of information? With a CPU in his brain did he even need a Memory Palace?

"-or three times a year." Gwen snapped out of her thoughts in time to catch that last bit of information. "Longest was three days in one go. Had lots of useless crap fall through, including about a ton of snow."

"Right. Thanks, Ianto," said Jack. "Tosh, is there any way we can predict what will be coming through today?"

"Sorry, Jack, no."

Jack scowled. "Very well, team. Make sure we're ready for just about anything, and if we can get everything cleaned up by Friday, we have the weekend off."

Grins blossomed on all the faces around the table except on Ianto's, who frowned instead. "You're coming along too," said Gwen, reaching across to pat his hand. "Isn't he, Jack?" she asked, turning to Jack, looking at him almost challengingly.

Jack grinned. "Of course. Captain's orders. Goddess knows you need a break from this place, Ianto."

Ianto's frown only deepened. "I do hope you have taken into consideration the fact that we are here to monitor a highly unstable Rift-"

"The Rift Predictor says it'll be quiet for a week after tomorrow," Tosh cut in, looking at Ianto annoyedly. "And it's been programmed to send alerts to Jack's wrist-strap and to our PDAs."

"See," said Jack beaming. "It'll be fine." He stood up and clapped the AI hard enough on the shoulder that he lurched forward a little. "Now chop chop, people, we've got to get ready for whatever crap the Rift's gonna spit out at us today."

**88888**

"We've got the scout ship prepped and ready," said Tosh, beaming as she walked up to Jack, wiping her oily hands on her coveralls. Behind her, Gwen crawled out from under the guts of the ship, her face and hands liberally streaked with engine grease.

Jack grinned. "As much as I'd love to get dirty with you girls, I've got work to do. Thanks, Tosh, Gwen. How about the cargo ship?"

"Didn't Owen tell you last week that the thing's scrap metal? Ianto thinks he can find some magic alien device that will make it work, but I'm not really counting on that happening. If we need to haul something, we're using my ship."

"Right," said Jack, and stuck his hands in his pockets, surveying the "scrap metal". A pity. It still looked salvageable. Maybe Ianto _would_ be able to find something to fix it. "Where's Ianto?"

"Archive," said Gwen, and pointed her thumb over her shoulder. "There's an entrance back there. You should be able to get in."

"Mmm. Once you're done, Tosh, please head to the bridge and monitor the Rift readouts. Gwen, see if Owen needs any help."

The two women groaned, but offered no words of protest as they picked up the various tools scattered across the hanger floor.

Jack sauntered past them to the far hanger wall and the huge Archive door set into it. After having been granted access to the Archive, Jack had only entered Ianto's domain twice, both times to check on the AI rather than out of any need for information. On his second visit Ianto had showed him the second level of the Archives, where they housed the alien artifacts and other physical objects that had fallen through the Rift. He had yet to use the hanger access to the lower Archive, having entered it the last time through the trapdoor in the data Archive.

He keyed his service number into the biometric keypad and allowed it to read his bioscans. Immediately a holographic **Access Granted** flashed up from the keypad, but the doors did not open. Jack frowned. Was this Ianto's work? It _had_ granted him access, but maybe the AI was just fucking with his he-

An almighty groan disrupted his train of thought, and with a shudder, the huge doors parted before him, revealing the sterile, fluorescent interior of the lower Archive. Jack turned around to give Tosh and Gwen a swift thumbs up, then stepped through the threshold. The doors ground shut behind him and he made a mental note to tell Ianto to check the mechanism after they'd dealt with the Rift spike.

"Ianto!" The Archivist was nowhere to be seen. Jack walked down the gleaming white corridor, keeping a eye out for the younger man in his sober black suits, but after rounding the gentle curve of the ship, it was quite clear that Ianto was nowhere in the lower Archive. Jack walked over to the ladder that led up to the data Archive when the hatch above him opened and Ianto's perfectly shined shoes appeared, followed by his pinstripe clad arse, and finally the rest of him.

The first time he'd watched the Archivist use the ladder, he'd tried to "help" him up, by putting his hands on Ianto's waist. Ianto had "reflexively" responded by kicking him the chest. This time Jack stood a respectful distance away and simply admired the view.

"Sir," said Ianto the moment his feet touched the brilliant white floor. He straightened his suit.

"Ianto," said Jack brightly. "Tosh told me you may have something here to repair the cargo ship in the hanger."

A tiny frown curled the corner of Ianto's lip. "Tosh misunderstood. We don't have any alien repair tools here, none that are compatible with Earth technology anyway, but I was under the impression that we had some spare parts stored here in the Archives." His frown deepened. "Apparently I was wrong."

"You were wrong?" Jack teased. "That must be a record! How about I-"

"Very amusing, sir," Ianto interrupted. "But maybe we should worry about the lack of one ship. We may-"

Jack cut him off. "Tosh has volunteered the use of her ship if we need to any hauling."

"Her ship is a Japanese FY763 Nissan Serenity-class transport ship, right?"

"Uh-huh."

"Should do." Ianto sighed. "Anything I can do for you, sir?"

Jack grinned. "Plenty, but for now you can help Tosh out on the bridge. And make us all some coffee, will you? It's going to be a long day."

**88888**

The alert came at 1628 hours, just when Jack was in the toilet taking a leak. He quickly finished up, washed his hands and raced for the boardroom only to find Ianto there, sitting at Tosh's station, fingers flying over the keyboard.

"Hanger, they're waiting for you," Ianto said and Jack rushed to the lift and descended to the lower level to find Tosh and Gwen waiting impatiently by Tosh's ship. The scout ship and Owen were nowhere to be seen.

"Owen's gone ahead to scout the area," explained Gwen, while Tosh warmed up the engines.

"Couldn't he have waited?" Jack snapped at he buckled himself into the co-pilot's seat.

"Sorry," said Gwen. "We're all a little jumpy and he just took off. Ianto said it should be safe though, the Rift's stable at the moment, and as long as Owen stays in the ship and just takes scans he should be all right."

_Sir_, Ianto voice crackled to life in his earpiece,_ the scanners have identified it as a cylindrical object about three meters across and seven meters long. Owen can give us the exact dimensions when he reaches it ETA five minutes._

"Anything else?"

_Myfanwy identifies it as a life pod, sir. We'll have Owen confirm it.  
_  
_Jack? Owen here. I've reached it. Looks like a life pod to me._

"I don't want to know what you think, Owen. What do the scanners say?" To Tosh, Jack added, "Take us out to it."

Tosh nodded and the ship shuddered as the docking clamps released.

"What do the scans say?"

_Definitely not of human make. I'm scanning for life signs -shit!_

"What is it, Owen?" Jack pressed urgently. "Owen, come in!"

_Two very weak life signs. I'm going in._

"No!"

_They're dying, for god's sake!  
_  
"Wait till we get there!" Jack thundered, his voice filling the cockpit. Tosh pushed the engines to go even faster; it wasn't far, they'd be there in minutes.

_I'm not going to just wait here for them to die!_

"Then don't. Get your ass back here."

_Fuck you, Harkness.  
_  
Jack ignored him and turned to Tosh. "Suits."

"Storage space near airlock. You'll find it."

"Thanks." He hurried out of the cockpit, one hand on the hull to stop himself from losing his balance as the spaceship lurched around some debris.

"Owen!" he heard Gwen yell into the open comm channel as he pulled out a space suit. "We're almost there!"

_Almost isn't good enough!  
_  
It was hard to scramble into the suit with ship moving the way it was, but Jack finally managed to get his boots in, and it went easier from there. He'd just sealed up the helmet when Tosh's voice spoke in his ear, _We're here. Are you in position, Jack?_

Jack shuffled into the airlock and sealed the door to the rest of the ship. "Yes."

_Double check your suit please. If you die we'll loose valuable time._

He quickly made sure all the safety lights of the heads-up-display were green then gave Tosh a confirmation.

_Okay then, opening hatch. Be careful, Jack.  
_  
"Yes, ma'am. Tell Gwen to suit up, I might need her. And tell her to prepare the winch."

_Will do, Jack._

_Jack?_ This was Owen. _Can you hurry up, please. Whatever they are in there, they're dying.  
_  
"I'm going as fast as I can, Owen." Jack was glad that he'd managed to get Ianto to allow him access to the Archive. All the shorts minutes he'd spent there (both check on and check out the AI) had at the very least reacclimatized him to the feel of zero-G. He still hadn't reached the level of skill he'd had back at the Time Agency, but he could more with more grace and economy than he'd previously had.

He kicked out one more last time and glided the last two meters to the life pod, curling his hands around metal seam that jut out. He tuned in to Ianto's comm channel.

"Ianto?"

_Yes, sir?_

"I'm sending you feed from the pod now. Can you identify the make?"

There was a pause of thirty seconds or so, then Ianto said, _Looks like Jwa'qlqui'iaa make. Jwa'qlqui'iaa are-_

"I know what Jwa'qlqui'iaa are, thanks," interrupted Jack without any malice. He switched comm channels back to Owen. "Owen, don't get your hopes up, they can't be saved."

_For chrissakes, Jack, we haven't even tried.  
_  
"We could but we don't have the necessary equipment. Jwa'qlqui'iaa are completely different from us. They're not even carbon based-"

_Jack! Owen! _Tosh's voice rang in his ear and he winced. _Is this really the time?_

Owen sighed loud static into his ear and Jack winced again, this time so hard he almost lost grip on the alien life pod. _All right, Jack. Do whatever the hell you want. I'll be on standby if you need me._

"Thank you, Owen. Believe me, there's really nothing we can do for them."

_Yeah, yeah, Jack, I believe you. Now let's just get this thing loaded so we can go back. I need a drink.  
_  
"Thank you, Owen," said Jack quietly, then changed channels to Gwen's.

"Gwen, are you suited up?"

_Yes, Jack._

"Okay, double check the seals then go to the cargo bay. Open the doors. There's a winch to the left side, release it."

Jack waited until the saw the cargo bay open, then pushed off the life pod and towards Tosh's ship. Gwen stood at the edge, the ship's artificial gravity grounding her, but with one arm twined around a strut just in case, and with the winch's clamp dangling from her other hand. He motioned for her to throw it to him and she swung it out to him in a long arc. Jack caught it easily, then swam back through vacuum to the life pod, and attached the magnetic clamp to the nearest surface.

Once he'd made sure it was secure, he gave Gwen a thumbs up and held on as the winch wound it into the cargo bay of the ship.

Jack opened his comm to Owen's channel. "Owen, get back to the station and be ready for any emergencies." As soon as Owen voiced his confirmation, he changed channels to: "Ianto, once Owen gets back, go to the cargo bay and help him with anything he needs."

_Yes, sir._

Getting the pod to the ship was simple, until the artificial gravity took over. Tosh was finally forced to shut it down momentarily while Jack and Gwen got the life pod settled and secured. Owen had already returned to the station, grumbling and swearing under his breath.

An hour after they'd gone out to retrieve the pod, Tosh landed her ship in the hangar of Torchwood Three. Owen and Ianto were standing ready by the door with two stretchers and a medical cart, both dressed in bio-hazard suits. They rushed to the cargo bay as soon as the drives shut down while Jack and Gwen worked to open the hatch. The seal opened with a hiss of gas that Ianto immediately analysed and once the scanner determined that it was relatively harmless, Jack pulled the hatch wide open.

Cautiously Owen peered into the pod's chamber, his bioscanner held out before him. After a moment he shook his head. "Dead," he said flatly. Jack peered over his shoulder. The two Jwa'qlqui'iaa hung limply from their harnesses that had strapped them safely to their seats. Neither of them responded when Owen touched them, then tried to find a heartbeat (if they even had hearts), then scanned them again for any electrical activity.

"Dead," he said again, and shot Jack a vicious glare, who simply stepped past him and gently undid the harnesses before lifting one of the Jwa'qlqui'iaa into his arms. It took a bit of effort of gather up its many tentacles, but Ianto helped him lift it onto a stretcher. Once both the aliens had been removed from the pod, Ianto and Owen wheeled them to the lift to be taken to the lab, while both Gwen and Jack stripped out of their space suits and ran them through a quick decontamination cycle in the hanger's cleanup unit.

Tosh had meanwhile emerged from the cockpit and was walking admiringly around the pod, and would have probably climbed in to have look at the controls had Jack not ordered the whole team to the boardroom immediately.

The moment everyone was seated Gwen asked, "What are we going to do with Jwaqul-ah,um-"

"Jwa'qlqui'iaa," said Ianto.

"Jwaqul-whatever. What are you going to do with them."

"Owen will autopsy them, take some biological samples, then we'll send the bodies for cryo-storage on Mars."

"Shouldn't we cremate them or something? Give them a proper send off?"

Owen rolled his eyes, but the rest of team was giving her somewhat sympathetic looks. "Gwen," Jack said gently, "We can't get sentimental in this line of work."

"I know," she muttered. "I just feel sorry for them. They must have been so scared, lost and alone and dying. Are you sure we couldn't have saved them?" She looked up at him, eyes wide and beseeching, begging assurance.

"Yes." It was Ianto who spoke. "Their planet or space sector must lie close to a rift too, because we've had them come through our Rift before. The Rift, possibly the radiation from it, affects them a lot more than it does humans. They too were dying when they were retrieved and the team medic tried everything but couldn't save them. Human technology is simply not compatible withe their systems."

"Don't we have alien technology that could help?" Owen asked angrily.

"Even if we did, I don't think we could have gotten it there in time to save them," was Ianto's calm reply.

"Fuck this," muttered Owen, and let his head drop in his hands.

"You did your best, Owen," said Tosh, petting him on his shoulder, but he simply shrugged it off.

"About the life pod," said Jack, trying to get the meeting back on track. "We should-"

"Keep it? asked Tosh eagerly.

"I'm not sure we have the space. Ianto?"

"Well, Alex used to send stuff this big to the Torchwood outpost on Mars, but I'm with Tosh on this one. I suggest we keep it. I'll try to make space in the hanger. If we get rid of the old cargo ship-"

"Whoa, not so fast! I'm captain here, I make the final decision." Jack looked from Tosh's unashamedly eager face to Ianto's impassive mask. When he turned to Owen and Gwen they simply shrugged. He weighed the odds. It was a life pod, still in good working condition. They would definitely find more information about the Toraxians this way, maybe even a way to give some kind of medical aid. Besides, Tosh would definitely be able to modify it for human use. "Okay. We're keeping it."

Tosh beamed and stood up, possibly to go and run experiments on it right that instant, but Jack held up a hand to stop her.

"The Rift. It's still going to be open for another twenty-four hours. So back to your stations everyone. Except Gwen, you're cooking. Something fast, use the ration packs. We'll sleep in shifts tonight. Dismissed."

_To be continued..._


End file.
